The life of those who choose to report crime is not easy. An example of this in Italy are the men who fought and fight the mafia every day such as the magistrate Giovanni Falcone, killed in 1992 or the Neapolitan writer Roberto Saviano, constantly escorted by the police.
Journalist Veronica Guerin was also aware of this, and despite her fear she wanted at all costs to bring out the truth about drug trafficking in Ireland.
Who was Veronica Guerin
Veronica Guerin (Dublin, 5 July 1958 – Dublin, 26 June 1996) was an Irish journalist. He grew up in the capital together with his father Christopher, his mother Bernadette and four brothers and was nicknamed “Ronnie”. Receives aCatholic education also at school where he can also become passionate about sports by practicing football, basketball, athletics and many others.
Subsequently, following in the footsteps of his father, studies accounting at Trinity College to then be hired by her father once she graduated.
Upon Christopher’s death, the young woman changed her profession to found one public relations company where he worked for seven years. She later worked as a personal assistant to Charles Haughey, becoming his friend and in 1987 getting the role of party treasurer for Sean Haughey.
Veronica Guerin’s difficult career
In 1990 he revolutionized his career again, this time in a definitive way. Enter the world of journalism with the proposal to work as a reporter for the Sunday Tribune and the Sunday Business. She is characterized by the desire to discover the truth even at the cost of putting her life in danger. While studying a case, she becomes friends with central figures in the story by making friends with the police and legal authorities as well as with criminals.
After several years of activity he devotes himself to crime news writing for the Sunday Independet being remembered for the careful use of street names and the use of fixed pseudonyms to avoid accusations of defamation. Right at this moment he begins to analyze the world of Dublin drug traffickers beginning to seriously endanger his life.
Veronica Guerin, threats and murder
In October 1994, after numerous death threats, the first attempts on his life begin. An article had just come out about the murder of Martin Cahill, a big shot in that environment, and men shoot two gunshots at his house. Later Guerin writes an article about another important man of the underworld and so in January 1995 a man shows up at her door pointing a gun to the temple and threatening her.
Despite the warnings, the journalist decides to continue her investigation with the help of the police now start shaking it day and night. Things do not seem to be improving and Veronica’s determination to bring these stories to the surface is interrupted in 1996 when the threats pass to the facts. During the drive she does not notice that she is being followed by two men on motorcycles six shots are fired at her ending his life.