A man jailed over a one-punch killing has revealed how he managed to turn his life around and open his own business.
Ryan Quinn from Northern Ireland served a four-year sentence for a fatal one-punch killing in 2003.
However, despite a brush with alcoholism, Ryan says he has managed to turn his life around by launching a successful gym franchise.
Belfast Live reports that after being given a four-year prison sentence for manslaughter following a one-punch killing in Cookstown in 2003, the 41-year-old from County Tyrone has now branched out into selling his own ready meals.
The meals, with Ryan's face on them, are being sold in a number of convenience store across Northern Ireland.
Quinn was sentenced to four years after a fatal one punch killing nineteen years ago. He said he regrets what happened to this day.
“It’s something that’s never going to go away. That’s not going to go away, ever,” Ryan told Belfast Live.
“You think about that every day. It has taken me a long time to get over it and I likely never will.
“I was 21 and when I first got arrested, I remember going on to a video link with my father and I said, ‘Daddy I want to go home’.
“He looked at me and said, ‘Son I have done many things for you but I can do nothing for you now’.
“My 20s were spent either under house arrest or in prison, but I could have been worse off if the shoe was on the other foot. So you would always be very wary of that.”
After coming out of prison in 2008 having served his time, Ryan got a loan from the bank to help set up LS Results, a gym in his native Ardboe. The business grew and soon there were franchises in Cookstown and Dungiven.
But business success did not always translate into happiness for him, and he has recently attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to deal with a problem with alcohol.
He added: “ Mike Tyson said that prison was the best days of his life, and people asked him why he said that. He said it was because he had peace and I felt that as well.
“I went in and couldn’t cook and couldn’t clean – couldn’t wash clothes. I couldn’t do anything for myself. I had to learn all those things very quickly.
“I managed to get a job in the gym in the prison. I always knew when I was growing up I wanted to do something in that industry.
“When I went into that gym I had to clean it and make sure everything was tidy. That was my introduction to the gym.
“Alcohol has been a big problem in my life, a massive problem. It controlled me, I didn’t control it. It was an addiction for me but I didn’t know why it was an addiction.
“When I drank I wanted to be someone else. I didn’t want to know anybody, wanted to be on my own and sit in the bar on my own.
“I would have used to have a drink at the weekend, but when lockdown came we were all stuck in the house and I would just be drinking every night.
“Even when the pubs opened again I found myself going there every night. I didn’t know there was anything wrong with me, I hadn’t a clue.
“I went to an AA meeting and I didn’t mean to, but the floodgates just opened. I put 20 odd years of stuff out of me and once I did that then they were able to help me.
“Will I drink again? Yes but I’ll never go back to the way I was.”
