This coming week, RTÉ will broadcast a landmark documentary series detailing the rise and fall of Seán Quinn and the repercussions for 'Quinn Country' and for Ireland.
More than four years in the making, and featuring candid testimony from Seán Quinn himself, the highly-anticipated series is the story of the man who personified Ireland’s boom - and subsequently, its bust.
In a change to scheduled programmes, Quinn Country will be shown over three consecutive nights in peak time from Monday to Wednesday on RTÉ One at 9.35pm, and available to stream on the RTÉ Player.
Made by the award-winning Fine Point Films for RTÉ, Quinn Country is produced and directed by Trevor Birney and produced by Andrew Tully.
With unprecedented access to Quinn, the documentary series tells an extraordinary 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.
Charting the dramatic expansion of the Quinn empire, from manufacturing to hospitality, property and insurance, the series details how Quinn became a ‘chieftain’ to his native region on the Border; injecting employment, wealth and hope into a community which, in part, remains fiercely loyal to him today.
This series 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.
He tied his fortune and that of his businesses to the fate of Anglo-Irish Bank, making big bets on the bank’s share price as it tumbled to disaster.
The state was forced to move in and begin the process of taking control of Quinn’s businesses.
This series brings Seán Quinn’s story up to date. It details the latest developments in a gripping saga; the legal battles between the Quinn family and the state, the changing relationship between Quinn and his former colleagues, and a campaign of intimidation against companies formerly owned by Quinn, culminating in the horrific attack in 2019 on Quinn’s former right-hand man, Kevin Lunney.
Told mainly in Seán Quinn’s own words, this series reveals an enigmatic and divisive character; someone who amassed an unimaginable fortune, and then watched it disappear.
It is a story about money and power, what it takes to amass them, and the battle to keep hold of them - all running next week on RTÉ One.
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