The rise and fall of Sean Quinn - From leaving school…

The rise and fall of Sean Quinn - From leaving school at 15 to Ireland's richest man and prison

Once Ireland's richest man, Sean Quinn had a long journey to amass his wealth, from leaving school at 15, working on the family farm and spreading his business empire into many sectors.

The Cavan native is the subject of a three-part RTE documentary this week. 'Quinn Country' delves into the story of Quinn as he rose from a teenager working on his family farm to the wealthiest man in the country and then bust.

The businessman was declared bankrupt in 2011 due to billions of Euro worth of debt. Following bankruptcy, he was jailed in November 2012 for contempt of court and served nine weeks in Mountjoy Prison.

However, before all of that, he started from humble beginnings and founded his first business at the age of 26, RSVP reports.

Here's everything you know about Sean Quinn's journey to become the richest man in Ireland.

First business

Sean Quinn left school at 15, but that never stopped him.

He got his start in 1973 when he started extracting gravel, sand and shale from his family's farm. He washed the materials and sold it to local builders. He began to quarry with just one lorry delivering sand and gravel.

Sean Quinn Quarries, Ltd. was his first big success.

From this came Quinn Cement in the late 1980s, the basis of his wealth.

Further business ventures

In 1998, he spent £100m (€152m) on a new state-of-the-art glass manufacturing plant across the road from the concrete plant, Quinn Glass. It was so successful that its only rival on the island of Ireland, Irish Glass Bottle's Ringsend plant, closed down just four years later.

Next, Sean founded the Quinn Group and got into the hospitality industry with Quinn Hotels. He also founded Quinn Lite Pac, Quinn Financial Services, and Quinn Direct Insurance.

He went on to make a dent in the motor insurance business by setting up Quinn-Direct. Profits for the Quinn Direct reached €232m in 2005, the Independent reported.

In January 2007 the Quinn Group purchased Ireland's second biggest health insurance provider, Bupa Ireland, for €150 million in a deal that saved Bupa from leaving Ireland's health insurance industry.

Ireland's richest man

Quinn's net worth at its peak, as of February 2008, was estimated at almost €5 billion, approximately £3.084 billion, according to the Sunday Times' Rich List. At the time, he was Ireland's richest man.

In November 2005 the Quinn Group, which was then privately owned by the Quinn family, was estimated to be worth between €4 billion and €5 billion.

What did he spend his money on?

The former billionaire claimed his tastes were "very simple" in a previous interview with RTE in 2007.

His biggest extravagance was a $24m (€15m) private jet, as well as his former seven-bedroom, 14,500 square foot property in Cavan.

His daughter Ciara is also well known for having a €100,000 wedding cake that was delivered from New York for her special day.

He said in the same RTE interview that family was more important to him than his riches. He is married to Patricia and they have a son and four daughters.