‘Quinn Country’ continues tonight
"What I want to be remembered for is the man that they tried to bury and they weren't able to bury."
It was a powerful opening to the first instalment of a three-part documentary 'Quinn Country'. The first episode 'Stone and Shite' aired on RTÉ One on Monday night.
In it, Seán Quinn stated it is “beyond comprehension” that friends and former staff blame his family over the abduction of Mannok director Kevin Lunney.
Over four years in the making, and featuring candid interviews from Seán Quinn himself, part two of the highly-anticipated series airs tonight (Tuesday).
Quinn Country was made by the award-winning Fine Point Films for RTÉ. It was produced and directed by Trevor Birney, and co-produced by Andrew Tully. The filmmakers had unprecedented access to the former billionaire and, in the programme, Mr Quinn talks openly about his meteoric rise during the heady Celtic Tiger years, and ultimately the collapse of his business empire after investing too heavily in Anglo Irish Bank.
Mr Quinn, a native of Derrylin, is interviewed driving while pointing out his former business premises from the roadside, and the large swathes of land he amassed in the local area over a near 30-year period.
“I never expected it would be owned by someone else but that’s the way it is.”
At one stage he recounts an early meeting in the Longford Arms Hotel, at which Quinn admitted to Bertie Hanly he didn’t yet know how to make cement.
“I said ‘what it’s made of?’ and he said ‘stone and shite’ and I said ‘we have stone and shite!'”
Mr Quinn was once Ireland’s richest man, and the 177th richest man on the planet. “It’s a very peculiar thing, money. Money is a piece of paper, what does it do for you?
“You don’t bring it to the grave with you, you bring your reputation to the grave.”
Earlier this week Mr Quinn accepted that his staunch criticism of some of his former friends and staff may have contributed to creating “a toxic climate”, but claimed what had been done to him was “wrong”, and he now wanted to tell his side of the story.
“I would accept the fact that I’ve been critical about them, and some of the truths that I’ve told about them would have created a toxic climate,” he said.
“If telling the truth is an incitement to hatred, then I’m guilty.”
He then went on to say: “There are achievers in life and there are destructors in life. I'm one of the achievers. But I want to be remembered as the man they tried to bury but they weren't able to bury.”
Mr Quinn accepted he has made “plenty of mistakes” in life, but what was important was that the “true story” finally be told by his family.
“They turn around now and blame us for being involved in criminal activity and abducting Kevin Lunney. It's beyond comprehension that your own friends and your own staff would do it to you.”
The final instalment will broadcast at 9.35pm tomorrow night (Wednesday), and is available on RTÉ Player. It's understood that the documentary no longer has the support of Quinn family.