Birney disappointed Quinn withdrew support for series

The significance of Alan Dukes’ comments about border people, which overshadowed much of the post Quinn Country commentary, wasn’t what he said. For Trevor Birney, who created the three-part documentary and the companion book by the same name, it was that it shone a light on the opinion of the man who was opposite the embattled Sean Quinn at the negotiating table.

Speaking to the Celt by phone on Monday, Trevor recalls how difficult it was to get people to speak on the record and in front of the camera for the documentary, even moreso after the attack on Kevin Lunney.

“We knew there were people who could help us tell the story, but who very politely decided not to take part. Alan Dukes was not one of those people, quite clearly. He was up for doing an interview the moment we approached him,” he recalls.

Given Alan Dukes’ background as a Fine Gael leader, former minister in government, having been chair of IBRC, Trevor surmised this would be someone “who knows what to say, what not to say”.

“I really wasn’t expecting him to say very much. I thought what he was going to say was that there wasn’t an awful lot he could say.

“He was quite happy to take any question around Sean Quinn and his relationship with him. He had a very good memory and was able to recall a lot of the major moments - whenever Sean Quinn came to see him and how all that was set up. He was incredibly expansive in his answers and was keen to explain what was going on at the time.

“But I knew immediately as soon as he started talking about Border people – when he dropped his shoulders, relaxed and stated talking about Border people, as someone who comes from the border [Enniskillen], whose family still lives on the border... I knew that this was immediately something that was going to make news,” recalls Trevor.

Dukes

He was right, it hit every news bulletin in the days after, and the Celt’s Facebook account reflected the sense of outrage locally. Four of Cavan-Monaghan’s five TDs demanded Dukes seek forgiveness, even Minister Heather Humphreys was demanding an apology from her party’s former leader. For Trevor, the comment was more significant than simply the feelings it bruised.

“The key thing about Alan Dukes, for some people on the island, they didn’t really get the significance of the Alan Dukes [comments], it was only the people in the North, and who live in the border particularly – on both sides – who really understood it, and really understood that that is something that represents an opinion, represents a body of opinion, and a view that is held in particular in Leinster about the nine counties of Ulster and the border... I knew that lots of people are going to see this comment as biased and prejudiced.”

For many, Dukes’ comments led to the opinion that, had Quinn been from the leafy suburbs of Dublin, maybe a different solution would have been found to the predicament.

“I can see how a lot of people, having watched Alan Dukes’ comments [would think] that if it was a different person that Sean Quinn was dealing with or negotiating with, on the other side of the table, then a different outcome may have been possible.”

Dublin Jimmy

A key revelation in the book, that wasn’t in the documentary is that Cyril McGuinness, AKA Dublin Jimmy, who orchestrated the kidnapping and torture of Kevin Lunney, was an MI5 informer.

Dublin Jimmy died from a suspected “cardiac event” during a police raid on his home in Derbyshire in November 2019.

Trevor spoke to ex-RUC officers who worked along the border in the late 1980s and early 1990s. “They saw him [Dublin Jimmy] as someone who was heavily involved in the IRA, heavily involved in terrorism, and somebody to be absolutely wary of.”

One ex-RUC officer told Trevor of having a brand new female recruit with him on her first day on duty.

“Dublin Jimmy came out, spotted them in a police car – a heavily fortified Ford Sierra car – and began to give chase. And the police officer jumped back into the car with his female colleague and hared off down the road with Dublin Jimmy chasing them!

“He was saying that the irony of this young officer being posted on the border and that this is her first day and she was being chased – not doing the chasing.

“That tells you what you need to know about Cyril McGuinness – that was a man who had no respect for the law, no respect for the uniform and didn’t see himself subject to the laws of the land and actually was quite happy to put the fear of God into any police officer who came close to him.”

One officer went to his superiors, seeking to have surveillance cameras placed at the home of McGuinness to see “who was coming and going”.

“But [he] was told in no uncertain terms that that wasn’t going to happen because Cyril McGuinness was working ‘for the boys’ or for MI5. At that stage, a young officer was shocked at what this meant.

"Now you can put it back into the context, that in some regards, Cyril McGuinness lived a charmed life – you might even say a protected species. Somehow, despite being known as very involved in the IRA, he never did any jail time of any significance in the North; was never charged in relation to any of these attacks, right up to 1996, when he was identified as a suspect in the Docklands bomb that ended the first IRA ceasefire. Two newsagents died in that attack.”

Trevor doesn’t give credence to the rumour that Dublin Jimmy could still be alive.

“I’ve heard those rumours. At the minute there’s nothing I’ve heard that would give any credibility to him not being dead. And the thing about it is – someone like him couldn’t stay away from Ireland. If he was given a new life in, say, England, I don’t think someone like him could live a new life without being attracted back to his old home.”

Sean Quinn

Trevor spent four years making the Quinn Country documentary and book. However on the eve of the first episode being screened on RTÉ 1, Sean Quinn distanced himself from the project.

“It always gets to the point where you have to show it to the person who you have made the documentary about – and that’s always a very nervous time – where do you think you have captured the story in the way that they expected it to be told?

“I knew that Sean was going to be disappointed before he saw the film.

“There was only so far that I could go journalistically, only so far we could go in the series, and Sean wanted us to go further on the elements that had led to his downfall, on what the bankers had done and what had happened to the companies since they had come back into local hands. We knew this is what Sean was really focused on – and his focus shifted across the four years.

“I was disappointed that he did distance himself from it, but I have to say I wasn’t totally surprised. And that’s unfortunate, because I think there’s lots of things in the documentary that help set Sean Quinn’s story in context. I’m always struck by the fact that there are people who live on the border who are still benefitting from the vision and determination Sean Quinn brought – he was a one-man enterprise zone, and that’s what he did across three decades of his life. And unfortunately the latest 10 years was spent battling for everything that he built.”

He also notes that when he began the documentary it was a year before the attack on Kevin Lunney. “The attack on Kevin Lunney changed everything and I think Sean recognised that at the time. Obviously time has moved on and Sean is still angry about what has happened to him, but for us, there were a lot of challenges, but when you have someone like Kevin Lunney with the standing in the community he has, it’s a major changing point in the story.”

Trevor thinks Sean’s legacy, and how he will be viewed by his descendants are important to him.

“Sean feels that the institutions of the state lined up against him, and took everything away from him. Whereas, if they had left it with him, he could have dug himself out of it. And I do think there’s an argument in that – lots of people are going to have very different views on it, but I do think there is a very strong argument. But I think the loss of the insurance company made that impossible – once he lost the insurance company it was going to be impossible to repay the debts.”

Does he think the programme will change people’s opinions on Quinn?

“I think at this stage, in 2022, minds are fairly hardened – a full throated supporter of Sean Quinn or some people out there still blame him for everything from the collapse of the Celtic Tiger to the collapse of the insurance company.

"We didn’t think attitudes would change, but I hope we have brought some enlightenment, I hope have bought something new to it, and I hope we have given some context – we gave Sean every opportunity to give his side of the story, and I give his truth.”

'Quinn' by Trevor Birney is now available from book stores priced €19.99.