Veronica Guerin

Veronica Guerin (July 5, 1958 - June 26, 1996) was an Irish journalist who was murdered in 1996 by Irish drug dealers.

Career

Veronica Guerin had studied accountancy and political research and had founded a public relations company before she joined the "Sunday Business Post" and "Sunday Tribune". In 1994, she began to write about criminals for Irish newspaper the "Sunday Independent". She used nicknames for underworld figures to avoid Irish libel laws. When she began to cover drug dealers, she received numerous death threats.

When Guerin was shot in the leg at her home on January 30 1995, some of her critics argued that she had staged the whole thing for publicity purposes. Regardless, she vowed to continue her investigations. Independent Newspapers installed a security system to protect her. On September 13, 1995, convicted criminal John Gilligan attacked her when she tried to interview him. He later called her at home and threatened to kidnap and rape her son if she wrote anything about him. The Garda Síochána (Irish police) gave her a 24-hour escort but she did not approve of this, saying that it hampered her work.

Death

On June 26 1996, when Guerin was driving her red Peugeot 406 coupe she stopped at a traffic light on the Naas Dual Carriageway, a few kilometres outside Dublin. All this time a motorcycle was following her car. One of two men sitting on a motorcycle beside her car shot her six times, fatally wounding her. Guerin's murder caused outrage, and Taoiseach John Bruton called it "an attack on democracy".

Aftermath

In the wake of Guerin's death, the Irish parliament realised the potential of using tax enforcement laws as a means of deterring and punishing criminals. It then enacted the Proceeds of Crime Act 1996 and the Criminal Assets Bureau Act 1996, so that assets purchased with money obtained through crime could be seized by the government. This led to the formation of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).

In November 1998, Dublin drug dealer Paul Ward was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison as an accomplice because he had disposed of the pistol and the motorcycle. This conviction was later overturned on appeal, though Ward continues to serve a long prison sentence for his participation in a prison riot. Brian Meehan was convicted of murdering Guerin and sentenced to life imprisonment. John Gilligan was extradited from the United Kingdom on February 3 2000. He was tried and acquitted of her murder but convicted of importing cannabis and sentenced to 28 years in prison; this was reduced to 20 years on appeal.

In January 2008, during a court appearance by John Gilligan to attempt to stop the state seizing assets associated with him, Gilligan dramatically said that John Traynor was the man who ordered the hit on Guerin, and that he (Gilligan) had nothing to do with it. Despite the presiding judge's attempt to silence Gilligan, he continued to blame a botched Gardaí investigation & determination to frame him as the reason for his current imprisonment. Ironically, Traynor was Guerin's confidential source of inside information on her inquiry into drug dealing prior to her murder. Traynor is believed to have been on the run since the murder.

In popular culture

*Two films have been based on her story: "When the Sky Falls" (2000, starring Joan Allen as "Sinead Hamilton"), and "Veronica Guerin" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/86191.stm] .

* Heavy metal band "Savatage" has a song about Veronica Guerin on their 1998 album "The Wake of Magellan".
* Christy Moore has also written and recorded a song called Veronica which appears on his Live in Dublin (2006)CD. (This does not appear on the DVD of the same concert)

References

*O'Reilly, Emily. "Veronica Guerin: The Life and Death of a Crime Reporter". Vintage, 1998. ISBN 0-09-976151-3

External links

* [http://www.freemedia.at/Heroes_IPIReport2.00/20Guerin.htm International Press Institute's 50 Press Freedom Heroes - A profile of Veronica Guerin]
* [http://www.ifex.org/en/content/search?SearchText=guerin Recent IFEX articles mentioning Veronica Guerin] - International Freedom of Expression Exchange
* [http://www.esatclear.ie/~drugsense/news/veronica.html The Penguin, the Gardai and the Gove]