Student awarded the Veronica Guerin Memorial Bursary
Wednesday 17 October 2007

Joanna Kiernan (centre) with Cathal Turley, son of Veronica Guerin, and Anne Harris, deputy editor, Sunday Independent

The Veronica Guerin Memorial Bursary was presented this month to Joanna Kiernan, a student on the Masters in Journalism in DCU's School of Communications. The bursary is sponsored by Independent News and Media, in memory of Veronica Guerin, who was murdered in June 1996 while on reporting duties for the Sunday Independent.

The bursary is intended to support a student of the MA in Journalism who has committed to undertake an investigative journalism project for their end-of-year dissertation. Joanna Kiernan, a graduate of the BA in International Relations in DCU's School of Law and Government, received the award for her proposal to write a series of article on some vulnerable groups in Irish society, and on the people who prey on them. The selection panel included representatives of the School of Communications and of the Sunday Independent.

The bursary was presented at the Dublin headquarters of Independent News and Media (INM) by Sunday Independent editor Aengus Fanning. Also present were Vincent Crowley, chief executive of INM, Veronica Guerin's mother, husband and son, other senior editorial staff of the Sunday Independent, and Brian Trench and Prof Colum Kenny of the School of Communications.

An announcement will be made soon of the bursary competition for 2008.