Veronica Guerin Memorial Bursary
Thursday 22 June

Prof John Horgan, School of Communications, DCU, Prof Colum Kenny,School of Communications, DCU, Joe Web, Deputy Managing Director, Irish Independent, Mr McDowell, TD, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd today announced the Veronica Guerin memorial bursary to mark the 10th anniversary of her death.

Launching the initiative, Mr McDowell, TD, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, said “Independent newspapers are to be commended that part of Veronica’s legacy will be a bursary that will help the profession of journalism: casting light where people want darkness; telling truths that people want hidden. It is a profession to which she devoted her life and in the service of which she was so brutally murdered”.

The bursary, worth €8,500, will be awarded annually to either a current student of the MA in Journalism at Dublin City University or to an applicant for the MA in Journalism programme who is eligible to register for the programme in the next academic year.

Applicants shall be required to propose a subject for their final thesis/major project that is relevant to the memory of Veronica Guerin. This might be, for example, a series of investigative articles or a radio documentary or an academic study of the practice of investigative journalism.

Michael Denieffe, Managing Editor, Independent Newspapers (Ireland), said, “Veronica Guerin’s murder on 26 June 1996 together with her extraordinary courage as a journalist touched the nation and marked a turning point in the fight against organised crime. It is fitting therefore that Independent Newspapers should mark the 10th Anniversary of her death by establishing the Veronica Guerin Memorial Bursary. The bursary will reward up and coming journalists at DCU who exhibit some of the qualities that Veronica held in abundance – courage, tenacity, resilience and an absolute conviction to get to the truth and expose wrongdoing”.

According to Professor Colum Kenny of DCU’s School of Communications, “DCU is delighted with the announcement of this bursary in honour of Veronica Guerin. As a member of DCU’s Governing Body, Veronica made a huge contribution to the setting up of the university in its earlier years between 1982 and 1992. DCU was also the first university in Ireland to establish undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in journalism. Therefore it is appropriate and a great honour that this bursary be made available to students of investigative journalism at DCU”.

The assessment shall include consideration of conceptualization, proposed methodology and research, academic and/or professional performance to date.

Information relating to the bursary scheme shall be published on the DCU website.