Journalist's killing to be marked by minute's silence

A minute’s silence will be held later today to mark the 10th anniversary of the cold-blooded killing of journalist Veronica Guerin.

Ms Guerin was gunned down on the outskirts of Dublin after mounting a high-profile war against Ireland’s drug barons in a national newspaper.

As she sat in her car at a traffic light near Newland’s Cross on the Naas Road, she was shot by a pillion passenger on a motorbike.

A minute’s silence is expected to be held at the spot where she died at 7.30pm tomorrow night.

A journalist with the Sunday Independent, Ms Guerin was one of the country’s leading crime reporters when she was killed.

The killing was the first assassination of a reporter in the Republic and sparked shock and anger among colleagues, the public and gardai vowed to track down her killers.

The criminal investigation was one of the largest in the history of the state and led to over 150 arrests.

Brian Meehan was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Paul Ward was also convicted and sentenced to life in prison in November 1998, but this conviction was later overturned on appeal.

Drugs baron John Gilligan was extradited from England in February 2000. He was tried and acquitted of her murder, but convicted of importing cannabis and sentenced to 28 years in prison, which was reduced to 20 years on appeal.

A bursary was last week launched in memory of the murdered journalist by Independent Newspapers. The Veronica Guerin Memorial Bursary will support the education of new journalists at Dublin City, where Ms Guerin served as a member of the governing body from 1982 to 1992.