{"id":511669,"date":"2026-05-31T12:33:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T12:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/511669\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T12:33:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T12:33:24","slug":"its-the-blood-that-runs-through-my-veins-filmmaker-and-director-trevor-birney-on-bobby-sands-kneecap-and-the-cannes-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/511669\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s the blood that runs through my veins\u2019: Filmmaker and director Trevor Birney on Bobby Sands, Kneecap and the Cannes Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

EVEN in his early teens, Trevor Birney\u2019s questioning mind refused to accept things he was told without challenge.<\/p>\n

The journalist and filmmaker, who would find himself in a prison cell after being wrongly arrested over his documentary on the Loughinisland atrocity, had always felt a need to seek out the truth. <\/p>\n

He was 14 years old in 1981 when the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands was elected MP in his home constituency of Fermanagh-South Tyrone.<\/p>\n

Birney, from an evangelical Protestant and unionist family in Enniskillen, recalls an older relative telling him that there were \u201c30,000 Provos\u201d in Fermanagh, a reference to the number of people who voted for Sands. <\/p>\n

\"Inside<\/a>\"‘There’s<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI was only 14 but I knew that couldn\u2019t be true. I played youth football at Enniskillen Rangers and no matter what your background, religion or anything else, when you went to football practice all those good people of integrity were the same. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remember being struck at how easy it was for him to label everybody who supported Bobby Sands as being in the IRA.\u201d <\/p>\n

Three years later, Birney entered his local paper, The Impartial Reporter, as a print compositor.<\/p>\n

He says working among the strong personalities of the print room was an \u201cawakening\u201d as a 17-year-old.<\/p>\n

When the owners recognised his talent and transferred him to the newsroom, it was the beginning of a career marked by a determination to \u201cchallenge the dominant narrative\u201d. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s meant telling the stories of many people on the margins who suffered injustice. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a line running through his work, moving to UTV and becoming editor of current affairs where he exposed hospital failings in the deaths of children, leading to the hyponatraemia inquiry. <\/p>\n

He then formed his own film companies, collaborating with major figures, and has become a significant figure in the Irish film and television production world. <\/p>\n

Providentially, after his earlier experience, he ended up making the film \u2018Bobby Sands: 66 Days\u2019.<\/p>\n

But it was an examination of allegations of security force collusion in the loyalist murders of six innocent Catholics watching the 1994 World Cup in a small bar in Loughinisland, Co Down that resulted in the high-profile arrest of Birney and his colleague and good friend, former Irish News reporter Barry McCaffrey, for which they later received substantial damages.<\/p>\n

\"InvestigativeTrevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey with journalistic material seized by police following the making of the Loughinisland documentary No Stone Unturned <\/p>\n

Birney\u2019s career has gone through several gear changes, with a varied body of work in documentary and film, so \u201cjournalist\u201d barely covers it now.<\/p>\n

He was at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month and is currently working with Terry George, \u201cone of the greatest Irish filmmakers of the last 30 years\u201d. <\/p>\n

They\u2019re collaborating on the film \u2018Ceasefire\u2019, about the role played by Irish-American journalist Niall O\u2019Dowd in the lead-up to the IRA ceasefire in 1994. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Dowd, who wanted to effect change, will be played in the movie by Chris O\u2019Dowd, while Jane Fonda will play Jean Kennedy-Smith and Ciaran Hynds the part of the influential Irish-American businessman Bill Flynn. <\/p>\n

Birney\u2019s catalogue also includes films on George Best, Cyndi Lauper, Boy George and many others, including the recent \u2018Saipan\u2019, telling the story of the Roy Keane-Mick McCarthy World Cup walk-out.<\/p>\n

He has has plans for further work as varied as films on Brendan Behan and Jeremy Corbyn. <\/p>\n

I ask how he would describe himself \u2013 journalist, filmmaker, producer, director, story-teller, company CEO or\u2026? <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it depends what time of day you find me,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is no doubt that the drug is journalism. There is nothing that gives me greater pleasure than being in the middle of a story as it is developing; trying to work out how we\u2019re going to tell this story, what is the value of the story,\u201d says Birney, who with some self-reflection admits he\u2019s had to be a \u201chustler\u201d to get documentaries or scripted films to screen, often with multi-million budgets.<\/p>\n

\u201cJournalism and documentary is the blood that runs through my veins and I\u2019m very lucky to work with so many talented people within Fine Point Films and Below the Radar. The Detail, an investigative journalism website which we launched back in 2011, is still going strong and producing some great stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FermanaghTrevor Birney’s film productions include Kneecap PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n

To get to the bottom of stories, there is a determination about Birney which was built from an early age via a mixture of nature and nurture.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s one of three brothers. The eldest, Nigel, was a talented footballer who played in the UEFA Cup for Glenavon, and Ian isn\u2019t just a successful runner but the man who has helped bring Enniskillen Running Club to be one of the foremost in Ireland. <\/p>\n

Neither Ian nor Trevor inherited Nigel\u2019s footballing ability, despite their mutual love of Liverpool, but all three have in common that they are high achievers with a drive to succeed. <\/p>\n

Their late father, Albert, held down three jobs, including as a member of the RUC Reserve during the conflict, and still found time to act as a trade union official. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remember people coming to the house all the time, day and night to seek his advice,\u201d says Birney.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople of all religions and backgrounds had no fear of coming to the house and he had no fear of seeing them any time of night to help them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Trevor considers himself \u201cvery lucky\u201d to have been brought up in Enniskillen and regularly visits his mother, Jean, whose bright energy he clearly admires. <\/p>\n

He recalls her working as a dinner lady at St Joseph\u2019s College and says: \u201cI remember one particular friend, Jeanette, who was profoundly deaf. My mother took her under her wing and brought her to our house all the time. She was a Catholic, but my mother went out of her way to help her.\u201d <\/p>\n

The background of social justice, public service and a sense of empathy, regardless of one\u2019s politics, has featured strongly in Birney\u2019s work, and he felt it was \u201cthe obligation of the journalist to tell the story accurately and as sympathetically as possible\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up calling our first company \u2018Below the Radar\u2019 because those were the types of stories we wanted to cover,\u201d he says, mentioning the killing of Arlene Arkinson, the young Castlederg victim of child killer and rapist Robert Howard. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a kind of attitude towards Arlene Arkinson… If Arlene had been born on the Malone Road, it would\u2019ve been a completely different attitude. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe same with Raychel Ferguson (one of the children featured on \u2018When Hospitals Kill\u2019). Had she not been born into a wonderful family from Derry, but instead been born into a family of well-connected parents in Belfast, again that would\u2019ve been different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FermanaghTrevor Birney PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n

One of Birney\u2019s UTV investigations, into the still unsolved 1974 murder in Trillick, Co Tyrone of nationalist councillor Patsy Kelly, which exposed links to security forces, would bring the broadcaster personal criticism because of his Protestant background. <\/p>\n

\u201cI got a phone call from someone I knew well in Fermanagh who said \u2018I was letting the side down\u2019. Why would I possibly want to pursue an investigation into the death of Patsy Kelly?\u201d <\/p>\n

Birney was undeterred and knew he was doing the right thing.<\/p>\n

He said \u201cat the Impartial Reporter, we were encouraged to write those uncomfortable stories and tell those uncomfortable truths\u201d; though it was an illustration that challenging the narrative often came with personal pressure.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d learned this at the weekly paper where local journalists come face to face with the people in their stories. <\/p>\n

One such story involved a relative of people killed in the Enniskillen bomb of 1987, who was critical of the authorities\u2019 handling of rebuilding the War Memorial. This went against the perceived image of Enniskillen\u2019s forgiving response. <\/p>\n

This style of journalism, Birney admits, came with a price, and the greatest example was \u2018No Stone Unturned\u2019.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 10 years this month since then Police Ombudsman Michael Maguire published his seminal report into the massacre. <\/p>\n

Birney and McCaffrey\u2019s powerful documentary would see both men arrested at the crack of dawn one morning and their journalistic materials seized. Police later accepted the search warrants had been unlawful.<\/p>\n

\"JournalistsJournalists Barry McCaffrey (left) and Trevor Birney outside the Royal Courts of Justice, in London, last year (Jonathan Brady\/PA) <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite clear to me that that kind of backlash that Barry and I suffered from was back to the old days,\u201d says Birney. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey failed miserably and their actions only served to highlight the film and raise its profile. The film has been shown as far away as San Francisco to Sydney, in eastern Europe, in South America and audiences around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just showed they were from yesterday, they were from the past and they still felt the rules they used to govern with still applied,\u201d says Birney, who recalls a phrase \u201cThe dead hand of Ulster.\u201d <\/p>\n

Worryingly, he adds: \u201cI do feel that it could still happen today.\u201d <\/p>\n

The issue of press freedom was highlighted by the episode, as well as revealing the fact that journalists in Northern Ireland were being spied on. <\/p>\n

It came with something of a personal cost for Birney and McCaffrey, with Trevor saying it was an attack on the two men personally and their families. <\/p>\n

While his family in Enniskillen were his anchor in his formative years, he\u2019s a family man himself now and they\u2019re crucial to his work. <\/p>\n

His wife, Sheila, a stenographer, helped practically with the business as well as supporting his ideals. <\/p>\n

They have three daughters: Ella, who\u2019s studying for a Masters in New York, Mia who\u2019s involved in her father\u2019s media companies, and the youngest, Freya, who is doing her GCSEs. <\/p>\n

\u201cSheila and the girls keep me right,\u201d says Birney.<\/p>\n

\"FermanaghFermanagh born producer, director and journalist Trevor Birney. PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n

Birney\u2019s career has moved considerably over the last decade and he now spends 90 per cent of his time on film and television scripts. <\/p>\n

Fine Point Films came out of a visit to the Galway Film Festival in 2008 when he heard a talk by American Oscar-winning producer Alex Gibney.<\/p>\n

The two men had a pint of Guinness afterwards and Birney was impressed with his ideas on how film and television could be financed. <\/p>\n

While he entrusted his long-time colleague, Michael Fanning, to continue making content for the traditional public service broadcasters, Birney moved to a new model of finding finance. <\/p>\n

The result was a number of films \u201cchallenging the narrative\u201d, including \u2018Mea Maxima Culpa\u2019, a study of sex abuse in the Catholic Church, and \u2018Elian\u2019, the story of a five-year-old boy in the middle of a custody battle between Cuba and the United States. <\/p>\n

\u2018No Stone Unturned\u2019 and then \u2018Kneecap\u2019 followed, with Birney talking with affection and admiration for the lads in the west Belfast Irish language rap group.<\/p>\n

\"DJDJ Pr\u00f3va\u00ed of Kneecap with Trevor Birney PICTURE: COLM LENAGHAN <\/p>\n

Birney turns 60 next year he shows no signs of slowing up, believing passionately in the \u201cshared island\u201d idea of the north and south\u2019s vibrant film industry. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s been working again with the writer\/director of Kneecap, Rich Peppiat, on a possible new movie to be filmed in Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very exciting project and given what Rich did with Kneecap, there\u2019s no doubt he\u2019ll be pushing boundaries again.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in Cannes has only confirmed that Irish talent, both on and off screen, is leading the world. We\u2019re born storytellers; that\u2019s our USP,\u201d says Birney, who\u2019s also working with Michael Fassbender\u2019s company, DMC, and separately with \u201ckindred spirit\u201d Stuart Carolan, the writer of Irish crime drama \u2018Love\/Hate\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cOur industry is primed for growth, there\u2019s a huge appetite for Irish films and television series,\u201d says Birney, who passionately believes that both parts of the island working together will bring huge benefits for the burgeoning industry. <\/p>\n

Trevor Birney is an outgoing and engaging character, humorous and a natural storyteller even away from his work. His gregarious nature, though, is underpinned by a steely determination, even defiance, that he will get to the truth. <\/p>\n

About to head into his sixties he may be, but the fire in that 14-year-old boy is still burning brightly.<\/p>\n

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