Feargal Quinn reveals he doesn?t take a Seanad salary in new TV3 documentary.

TV3 GROUP RELEASE

IMMEDIATE: Friday 5th September, 2014

 

Feargal Quinn reveals he doesn’t take a Seanad salary in new TV3 documentary.

 

In an in-depth TV3 interview, Feargal talks openly about his personal and business life, including the decision to sell Superquinn.

 

The programme features never before seen home-movie footage as well as contributions from Feargal’s family, friends, colleagues, and business rivals.

 

Feargal Quinn is available for interview today on request.

 

‘Feargal Quinn: Supermarket Revolutionary’ airs Monday 8th September at 9pm on TV3.

 

This insightful TV3 special, presented by Nora Owen, delves into the remarkable life of Superquinn founder, Feargal Quinn, with an open and frank interview. Featuring never before seen home-movie footage and personal photos from Feargal’s own family archive, as well as contributions from Feargal’s family, friends, colleagues, and business rivals, the programme looks at how the admired entrepreneur took the lessons he learned from visiting supermarkets in France and the US to help him revolutionise the Irish supermarket landscape.

 

Feargal, who is an Independent Senator, reveals, for the first time, that he doesn’t take a Seanad salary: “I’m not taking a salary. When I went into the Seanad first 20 years ago and I said I want to give my salary to charity, they said well the Government have to get their half first, about 50%, I said no. So I took my salary for the first time and gave it to charity and didn’t say anything about it. But for recent years the last 10 years or so, I said no I won’t take the salary at all. This is when, probably the last 8 years, since the State ran into some difficulty.”

 

The veteran entrepreneur talks candidly about working in his father’s Red Island holiday camp as a shoe-shine boy and a bingo caller, the dilemma he faced after seeing his very first shoplifter, getting the call to tell him that one of his Superquinn stores was burning down and introducing self-service to Ireland.

 

Feargal talks openly about his decision to sell Superquinn: “I was coming to the age of 70 and others valued our sites much more than we did. I remember somebody saying to me ‘I can’t believe you don’t put eight floors on top of that, two levels of car parking underneath. You could make much more money. And look there’s another site you could do this or that with’. So others valued the premises much more than we could ever make from the grocery business. So I went to the family and said ‘others value this and I’m getting to the stage that I’m not going to start getting into construction and building, do you want to’? And they didn’t want to. They said ‘we don’t know anything about that’ so it was a comparatively easy decision to sell.”

 

 

Featuring contributions from, amongst others, Feargal’s only sibling, his sister Eilagh Hyland, his eldest son Eamonn, his assistant of almost 30 years Anne O’Broin, his old Quinnsworth rival Maurice Pratt, his friend and ex-Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne, this revealing documentary shows a side to Feargal we’ve never seen before.

 

‘Feargal Quinn: Supermarket Revolutionary’ airs Monday 8th September at 9pm on TV3.

 

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ENDS

 

For further information
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Jean O’Donovan – Press & Publicity Assistant – 01 419 3428

Sharon McHugh – Head of Press & Publicity – 087 922 4143

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NOTES TO EDITOR:

 

Feargal Quinn Biog

Feargal Quinn is the subject of Feargal Quinn: Supermarket Revolutionary. He was the founder of the successful supermarket chain Superquinn, which he sold in 2005.

 

Feargal has been a member of Seanad Eireann for more than 20 years and has enjoyed huge success in recent times as the presenter of Feargal Quinn’s Retail Therapy.