Veronica Guerin: The Life and Death of a Crime Reporter [Paperback]

Emily O'Reilly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 1998

On June 26, 1996, the Sunday Independent's crime reporter Veronica Guerin was shot dead by a motorcycle passenger as she waited at traffic lights on the outskirts of Dublin—the victim of her own crusading exposes of leading criminals. Her death profoundly shocked the country. The President attended her funeral, tributes were paid to her in parliament, and hundreds of bouquets of flowers were placed in her memory by members of the public. Within a month new anti-crime measures had been introduced and two of the leading murder suspects had fled the country. While Guerin was hailed as a heroine, the Sunday Independent denied any culpability in her death. Emily O'Reilly's book exposes the frightening moral bankruptcy of the media and the devastating consequences of this—for the individual and for society.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a vivid biographical portrait of slain Irish journalist Victoria Guerin, O'Reilly (Masterminds of the Right) tells a compelling story while thoughtfully exploring issues of journalistic ethics. When Guerin was shot dead in June 1996, she had been writing a series of investigative reports about the shadowy Dublin underworld for the Sunday Independent. She had interviewed notorious criminal Martin Cahill (subject of John Boorman's recent film, The General) shortly before he was killed in 1994. Cahill's death left Guerin free to describe his life and criminal associates in greater detail; still, those who knew the inner workings of Dublin's armed gangs feared for her safety. Guerin, writes O'Reilly, was uncommonly aggressive in pursuit of a story and "showed no discriminationAan approach to a known or suspected psychopath was carried out as nonchalantly as an approach to a harmless politician." Although O'Reilly believes that Guerin was reckless in ignoring the obvious warning signs, she concludes that Guerin was ultimately a victim of the tabloid tactics of her employers, whose sensationalist promotional stuntsApicture bylines and personalized headlines such as "I'm Threatened In Underworld Battle for City"Amade her a very visible target. O'Reilly turns Geurin's case into a cautionary tale about what can happen when the media is determined to sell papers at any cost.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A shallow, one-sided, and gratuitous indictment of slain Irish crime reporter Veronica Guerin and the Sunday Independent newspaper. Irish journalist O'Reilly, seemingly frustrated by the posthumous pieties surrounding the ``martyred'' Veronica Guerin, attempts to paint a far darker picture of her mysterious life and death. Ireland's best known crime reporter, Guerin was murdered by a motorcycle gunman on June 26, 1996, in Dublin. Her death stunned the country. The conventional wisdom was that Guerin had gotten too close to organized crime leaders and was killed to ensure her silence. O'Reilly contends that Guerin willingly courted danger, using unethical and risky methods of obtaining information about criminals. An undeniably aggressive reporter, Guerin basically staked out criminals' homes in order to gain interviews and scoops. In four separate incidents, Guerin was brutally beaten, shot at, shot in the leg, and threatened with murder. She nonetheless continued hunting down stories on drug dealers, killers, and assorted criminals. Meanwhile, her employers at the Sunday Independent were marketing her as a crusading media staran image she felt pressured to uphold. O'Reilly asserts that the Sunday Independent was aware of the danger facing Guerin but did nothing to protect her. The major problem with O'Reilly's thesis is Veronica Guerin herself, who, after being shot in the leg, left her hospital bed to interview an infamous Dublin criminal. If gun-wielding psychopaths couldn't slow down the indefatigable Guerin, how could her editors? When offered police protection, Guerin turned it down. When her editors offered her easier, safer assignments, she threatened to bolt to another newspaper. O'Reilly blithely implies that the Sunday Independent should have taken disciplinary action against Guerin for failing to protect herself or to take safer assignments. Ultimately, O'Reilly's attempt to lay blame for Guerin's murder on Guerin herself or her newspaper seems beside the point, and even a little nasty. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: Random House UK; 1st ed edition (May 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099761513
• ISBN-13: 978-0099761518
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,713,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars You would need to know the person..., January 12, 2000

By 

Catherine (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Veronica Guerin: The Life and Death of a Crime Reporter (Paperback)

This book, I would give, -10 out of 10.Based on sensitivity and fact. It was plain to see that Emily O'Reilly did not like Veronica. Even though Veronica's family and Real Friends asked for nothing to be written, filmed or published in that short space of time she went ahead and did it. I would not advise anybody to buy this book. From knowing Veronica, I do know different. Veroncia would never put her darling cathal at risk. She knew what she was doing bringing him along to a meeting.

I think it was terribly insensitive of Emily to write this book. Does she have any idea how much it upsetted Veronicas's REAL friends to hear about this book or even read it. I did read it, out of couriosity. To write about a person is one thing, which is easy, but to know the person, love the person, idolise the person is another.....Emily....it was cruel of you to put her real friends through this...just so you could make money from it.

This my friend, is a horrible thing to do, also, get your facts straight.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as it gets, and as good as we're likely to see..., July 17, 2003

By 

"maurice_in_galway" (Galway City, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Veronica Guerin: The Life and Death of a Crime Reporter (Paperback)

This book is as good as it gets if you want to know the Veronica Guerin story. It is thoroughly researched, clearly presented, and as balanced as possible under the circumstances. It offers extensive interviews with Jimmy Guerin, Veronica's younger brother, and has good interview material from many others who knew and worked with her, such as Damien Kiberd, former boss and editor of the Sunday Business Post. There was some unfortunate pre-press publicity by the publisher that got up the nose of her employers at the Sunday Independent, and they refused to contribute, as did her husband, so if the book is in any way one-sided, it's simply because the other side (if there can really be such a thing) refused to be interviewed. The Sunday Independent was the paper where she built her reputation as a crusading anti-crime journalist, and was her employer at the time of her death. Others that were working there at the time, notably Eamon Dunphy, did however contribute, and I believe sufficient fact is presented that readers can make their own judgements as to Emily's thesis. She believes that the Sunday Independent, and Veronica herself were largely to blame for her own death. Personally, I don't really see the point of trying to apportion blame, and the only criticism I would have of the book is that it spends a bit too much time obsessed on that issue.

One of the reasons Veronica's husband was against the book was that he felt it was being written too soon after her death. Given that it was ultimately published nearly two years after the murder, I find that sentiment a bit odd (the Sunday Independent was using her image in its advertising a month after her murder, and the husband apparently had no problem with that). Whatever about the actual date of publication, it was vital to at least do the research as soon as possible, while the facts were fresh in people's minds. To date, no other book I know of has been written about Veronica, apart from one focused more on John Gilligan, the man ultimately blamed for, but not convicted of her murder (he was sentenced to twenty-eight years for importing cannabis - one might be forgiven for suspecting that he was sentenced for the murder regardless of the fact that there was no case strong enough to convict him).

In my six years in Ireland, I've found Emily O'Reilly to be the most consistently excellent journalist working here today. Her writing is always clear, complete, balanced, and accurate. This (unfortunately) puts her head and shoulders above almost all other journalists working in Ireland, and it's a great loss to Irish journalism that she has recently accepted the post of Information Commissioner and Ombudsman. Veronica appears to have been quite excellent herself, but she died the year before I moved here. It sounds like her talents were rather wasted on the crime journalism, and it's ironic that she in fact began her career with some truly groundbreaking stories on business and politics.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could not put this down!!!, October 15, 2008

By 

Teresa Ayudame (Heartland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Veronica Guerin: The Life and Death of a Crime Reporter (Paperback)

This is a riveting account of the life and death of Irish journalist Veronica Guerin. Criminals in Ireland had much to fear from the relentless journalist, and despite their increasingly violent attempts to silence her, she refused to back down from their intimidation. I couldn't help but wonder if a public hungry for sensational stories contributed to her unfortunate demise. The cold-blooded murder in broad daylight of Ms Guerin caused a national outrage. The public outcry to the brazen crime brought about much-need reform to Ireland's drug trafficking laws, providing some solace and a reminder that triumph is often borne of tragedy.