Brian odonnell veronica guerin biography

Charles Haughey was one of her heroes. An impeccable source described how Veronica, told him that she had voted 26 times for Charles Haughey in the Dublin North Central constituency during the February general election. Magill has confirmed this story with a second source. She was to remain a member of the University's governing body for 10 years, although she appeared to have no obvious qualifications for the position.

InVeronica's profile in the party was further boosted when Mr Haughey appointed her secretary to the Fianna Fail group in the New Ireland Forum. By this stage the Haughey and Guerin families were very close. The newly weds spent part of their honeymoon on Inishvickillaun, Mr Haughey's island off the Kerry coast. A source close to Mr Haughey described it as a distancing rather than a rift.

According to reliable sources, there were a number of reasons for the cooling in relations. Confidential details about Mr Haughey were published in the Phoenix magazine, which the sources say Mr Haughey suspected only Veronica could have leaked. Paddy Prendiville, a close friend of Veronica, was the editor of the Phoenix. Another reliable source said Veronica had been caught going through Mr Haughey's papers in his private office.

It was also around this time, according to the same source, that Veronica had approached at least two senior figures in Fianna Fail, including Mr Haughey, claiming that her son Cathal had a rare disease and that she needed money to pay for treatment in the Mayo Clinic in the United States. Magill has established from sources close to the Guerin family that Cathal never suffered from any such condition.

Brian odonnell veronica guerin biography: A kid who used to

Once he felt betrayed by someone, there was no going back for Mr Haughey. While his sons remained in contact with Veronica and Graham and her brother Jimmy who was election agent for Sean Haughey in the general electionall contact between Veronica and Mr Haughey ended. She then worked in her father's accountancy firm for nearly two years and began accountancy exams but never qualified.

At one stage Veronica told friends that she passed her final exams in accountancy and was the youngest person to qualify in the country. Although she was never an accountant, she did have a certificate in marketing. Veronica went through a variety of careers and was reticent about some of them. With a wave of her hand, she mentions as previous jobs, accountancy, marketing and PR.

The business catered for 21st birthday parties and other small functions, but survived only a few weeks. It ended with Veronica and her sister leaving a saucepan of eggs boil dry and an odour in the house for weeks. Veronica and Graham also opened a vegetable shop called Evergreen on the Malahide main street. It lasted approximately three months.

Next, she set up her own PR company. It closed after a year, following a complicated transaction involving Aer Rianta.

Brian odonnell veronica guerin biography: Veronica Guerin was an investigative journalist

Shortly afterwards, Veronica began working in a travel company in Abbey Street and was soon telling friends about her adventures jetting across the world on exotic trips. Aileen O'Toole, Deputy Editor of The Sunday Business Post, recalled in an article shortly after Veronica's death, how Veronica had walked into the office of the newspaper in the autumn of and said she wanted to be a journalist.

She was commissioned along with a producer and camera crew to do a report on the subject for Today Tonight. According to sources at the station, Veronica's story was well-researched and stood up. She was regarded as a hard worker if somewhat obsessive and impulsive. Relations cooled when Veronica was told that her voice was unsuitable for broadcasting and that while she would be credited with researching the report, she would not be allowed to present it.

After her protests failed to change this decision, Veronica walked off the job and attempted unsuccessfully to claim copyright on the story. In the fall ofgunshots were fired through the front window of her house. It didn't stop her. A few months after the warning shots, a gunman burst through the front door. The assailant pushed her up against a wall and put the gun to her head, then moved it slowly down to her thigh and pulled the trigger.

I'm alive'! Subsequently, her newspaper spent thousands of dollars on a security system for her home. For a while she was given around-the-clock police protection, but she called it off because it was interfering with her work. That work involved a man by the name of Joh Gilligan, a nasty thug and suspected drug trafficker who, in the few years he had been out of prison, had managed to build a multimillion-dollar estate and equestrian center in the Irish countryside.

In September Guerin paid Gilligan a visit and was unprepared for his response. She was on her own. And she said afterward, she said, 'I shouldn't have gone out there, I know that'. According to a statement Guerin gave the police, her attacker called the very next day to make sure she'd gotten the message. If she wrote about him, he told her, "I'm going to kidnap your son and sodomize him.

I'm going to shoot you, do you understand? I'm going to kill you. In the end, it took Veronica Guerin's own murder last June 26 to convince people that everything she'd been writing about the criminal underworld was true.

Brian odonnell veronica guerin biography: Remember that kid who used to

About 1 p. She was being followed by two men on motorcycles. Admirers lined up in front of the offices of the Sunday Independent to leave flowers and sign a condolence book. From the very beginning, there was little doubt that Guerin had been the victim of a professional hit, most likely ordered by one of the criminals she had already written about or planned to write about.

Police immediately launched a full-scale investigation of the crime but admitted that they expected it would be quite some time before anyone was apprehended if ever. In Octoberhowever, Irish police charged a man named Paul Ward with conspiracy to murder in the death of Veronica Guerin. His was the first in what law enforcement officials hoped would be a series of arrests in the case.

Most of the suspicions have centered around Gilligan, who left Ireland for Amsterdam the day before the murder. He claimed he had won the money gambling, but authorities didn't buy his explanation. He was arrested on charges of trying to launder profits from selling illegal drugs. Since Guerin's assassination, a number of events have suggested that she did not die in vain.

First of all, amid criticism that they did not do enough to protect her, officials of the Sunday Independent announced that they were considering offering journalists working on dangerous stories more and better protection. Secondly, the Irish Parliament convened a special session to discuss anti-crime legislation aimed at cracking down on organized crime and making it easier for police to pursue cases against mob bosses.

The tough new measures caused some members of Dublin's underworld to flee the country to avoid arrest. Perhaps most important of all, Guerin's death prompted a period of soul-searching in Ireland, the likes of which had not been seen for quite some time. Citizen groups sprang up in some of Dublin's poorest neighborhoods, where the drug trade thrived, and people demanded change.

Brian odonnell veronica guerin biography: Composer Harry Gregson-Williams heard a boy

On May 2,at a ceremony in Arlington, Virginia, the name of Veronica Guerin and those of 38 other international journalists who died in the line of duty in were added to the Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial. Ironically enough, Guerin had been scheduled to speak at a Freedom Forum conference on the subject of journalists in peril just two days after she was killed.

Her husband addressed the audience, noting the pride both he and his son felt at seeing Guerin honored in such a way. Veronica was not a judge, nor was she a juror, but she paid the ultimate price with the sacrifice of her life. New York Times, June 27,p. A4; July 8,p. D8; October 19, ; November 23, ; February 5, People, July 22,pp. Washington Post, July 9, Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

January 8, Tried and acquitted of Guerin's murder, [ 9 ] he was later convicted of importing 20 tonnes of cannabis and sentenced to 28 years in prison, reduced to 20 years on appeal. He accused Traynor of having ordered Guerin's murder without his permission. Traynor had fled to Portugal after Guerin's murder, and having been on the run from British authorities sinceresided mainly in Spain and the Netherlands from onwards.

Traynor died in of cancer. Turley remarried in On 2 Mayat a ceremony in Arlington, Virginiaher name and those of 38 other international journalists who died in the line of duty in were added to the Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial. Her husband addressed the audience: "Veronica stood for freedom to write. She stood as light, and wrote of life in Ireland today, and told the truth.

Veronica was not a judge, nor was she a juror, but she paid the ultimate price with the sacrifice of her life. Inthe Veronica Guerin Memorial Scholarship was set up at Dublin City Universityoffering a bursary intended to meet the cost of fees and part of the general expenses of an MA in Journalism student who wishes to specialise in investigative journalism.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Irish crime reporter — For the film, see Veronica Guerin film. Not to be confused with Orla Guerinanother Irish journalist. DublinIreland. Graham Turley. Early and personal life [ edit ].

PR career: — [ edit ]. Journalism career: — [ edit ]. Assassination and funeral [ edit ]. Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki. Aftermath [ edit ]. This article needs to be updated.