Veronica Guerin
Veronica Guerin
1959 – 1996
Campaigning Irish Journalist
Throughout history, Irish women have transformed the world culturally, socially and technologically. Be inspired by the women featured each week throughout March to celebrate International Women’s Day. This week we focus on the courage and bravery of the Dublin journalist Veronica Guerin.
Who was she?
Veronica Guerin was a journalist for The Sunday Independent who became famous for her hard-hitting exposés on Dublin’s drug culture. She was born in 1958, one of five children, on the North side of Dublin. As a youngster she excelled in sports, particularly camogie, soccer and basketball. She became a lifelong fan of Manchester United soccer team.
She wasn’t always a journalist. After training at Trinity College, Dublin, she joined her father’s accountancy firm but left after his death in 1983. She formed her own public relations company and in 1990 she took up journalism, initially with Dublin's Sunday Business Post and then for the city's Sunday Tribune. But in 1994, Guerin became an investigative reporter for the Sunday Independent, the largest-circulation weekend newspaper in Ireland, where she specialized in crime reporting. She was hard hitting in her writing, especially about the drug trade in Dublin and its consequences in poor areas of the City.
Frustrated by the lack of progress by the authorities and maddened by the ruthlessness of the gangs, she set out on a one-woman crusade to bring the barons to justice. As a result, she and her family became targets and received multiple death threats, but she was unrelenting in her pursuit of the truth. Bullets were then fired through the window of her home while she played with her young son. She was shot in the leg but survived.
Her Legacy
Her persistence in the face of such intimidation was recognized In December 1995, when she received the prestigious International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Sadly, at age 37, on 26th June 1996, Veronica was assassinated by two men on a motorbike while stopped at a traffic light in Dublin.
A bust of Veronica in the gardens of Dublin Castle
The news of her death affected Irish people deeply
As the news of her murder spread through the city people stopped in disbelief. Irish people were shocked and outraged. that this could happen in their city They demanded change and took direct action in areas where the drug trade thrived. As a result of her death, the Irish Constitution was changed to allow the seizure of assets of suspected drug barons, many of whom were finally brought to justice. On May 2, 1997, 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 1996, were added to the Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial.
In Memory of Veronica Guerin
As a fitting tribute to this brave Irish heroine, two movies tell her story: the first When the Sky Falls (2000) and Veronica Guerin (2003) starring Cate Blanchet in the title role.
