Trevor Birney, the director and producer of ‘Quinn Country’ – a landmark documentary detailing the rise and fall of Seán Quinn that aired on RTÉ this week – says he understands why the former richest man in Ireland is “probably disappointed” with the series.

It is understood that before the documentary aired, Seán Quinn told Joe Finnegan on Shannonside Northern Sound that he could no longer support the documentary.

“There was no doubt that Seán had a hope, an ambition for the series that probably we could never meet,” said Trevor, speaking to The Impartial Reporter on Wednesday, ahead of the final episode’s airing.

“I think that Seán is probably disappointed – and I understand why he’s disappointed – that the series doesn’t go far enough for him.”

“For Seán Quinn, he has got his own particular points that he really wants to make. We’ve included as many of them as we could in the series, and I think that we have gone much further than even we thought that we could, but for Seán it doesn’t go far enough.

“I understand his disappointment, but I hope that once the full series has gone out and he sees the public reaction, he can maybe take a more measured, longer view of it,” he added.

Made by the award-winning Fine Point Films for RTÉ, ‘Quinn Country’ is produced by Andrew Tully and directed and produced by Trevor.

Talking about what inspired him to make a documentary on Seán Quinn, Trevor explained that the idea came from a conversation between him and his former The Impartial Reporter colleague Rodney Edwards in 2018.

“Rodney and I were having a chat and he mentioned Seán Quinn, and I said, ‘That’s really interesting, I’d love to do a documentary on Seán Quinn’, and he said, ‘Let me talk to him and see if he’d meet you’,” said Trevor, noting that Seán agreed to meet with him and Rodney.

“It all generated, as all great ideas do, through the network that is The Impartial Reporter’s staff and former colleagues. And that’s how we ended up where we are today,” explained Trevor.

The first interview with Seán for the documentary was filmed four years ago, in November, 2018. Since then, a number of challenges had an impact on the production.

“Obviously, the pandemic was a major one, but the horrific attack on Kevin Lunney in September, 2019, then brought a whole new level to the story,” said Trevor, explaining that they had to pause and consider the ramifications of that.

“We didn’t realise when we started out four years ago that it was going to take so long for it to come to air.

“It is a very significant series – one of the most significant pieces of television I’ve ever been involved in – in terms of the production, in terms of the work, in terms of the challenges, but we’re just delighted that it’s out there now and people can actually see the fruits of our labour.”

Delving deeper into the story of Seán Quinn, Trevor is releasing a book, simply titled ‘Quinn’, today (Thursday) which has been published by Merrion Press. It is planned that the book will be officially launched at the Enniskillen Waterstones bookshop next Friday, December 9.

Explaining that the book “really builds on the documentary”, Trevor said: “The documentary is what I would call a very reductive process. You’ve got a limited amount of time with a huge amount of information, and you’re trying to impart that information to an audience in an understandable way.

“Whereas with the book, you can actually then expand on every single story. You can tell it in a much more rounded way.

“I realised there was a huge amount of detail there to tell, from talking to Seán Quinn, from talking to a lot of people around him, there was a really great story to be told,” he told this newspaper.

'Quinn Country' was shown over three consecutive nights from Monday, November 28 to Wednesday, November 30 on RTÉ One, and received a strong reaction from viewers, with many commenting on social media.

With unprecedented access to Seán Quinn, the documentary tells the story of how a farmer’s son from Derrylin on the Fermanagh/Cavan Border managed to build an empire from the limestone and shale-filled ground on which he was raised.

It tells how, over the course of his career, Quinn managed to go from school dropout to the richest man in Ireland, only to lose it all.

The series is now available to stream on the RTÉ Player.