The location where Veronica Guerin was shot dead

This is the location where Irish crime journalist Veronica Guerin was shot dead.

It is situated on the Naas Road in Clondalkin, Dublin.

At around 12:30 p.m. on June 26th, 1996, Guerin left Naas District Court after appearing on a speeding charge. She then drove 20 kilometers along the N7 Naas Road towards Dublin.

Shortly before 1 p.m., Guerin's red Opel Calibra came to a stop near the traffic lights at the junction between Naas Road and Boot Road.

While the journalist was sitting at the traffic lights and talking on the phone, a white motorcycle pulled up beside the driver's side of her car.

As the bike rolled to a stop, the passenger at the back retrieved a .357 Magnum revolver from the inside of his jacket and opened fire.

Guerin was shot six times and died almost instantly.

Following the shooting, the driver shouted, "That's it!" before speeding off towards Newlands Cross. At that point, the hitmen turned right onto Belgard Road and drove in the direction of Tallaght.

The crime sparked public outrage at the time, with Taoiseach John Bruton calling it "an attack against democracy." The murder was so shocking that many Irish people still remember exactly where they were when they heard the news that Guerin had been gunned down in broad daylight.

Shortly after the killing, the Irish government established a new agency called the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), which was given special powers to track down and seize the illegally acquired assets of organized crime figures.

The investigation into the journalist's murder was one of the largest in Irish history. The police made hundreds of arrests, and the newly formed Criminal Assets Bureau seized more than €6 million worth of property.

Guerin was murdered by members of a drug gang. At the time of her death, the 37-year-old was a crime reporter for the Irish Independent.

Many of her newspaper articles focused on prominent Irish gangland figures such as Martin Cahill, John Traynor, and Gerry "The Monk" Hutch.

In September 1995, Guerin approached suspected drug dealer John Gilligan and questioned him about his lavish lifestyle. Despite having no official source of income, Gilligan owned several properties, including an equestrian center.

When Guerin approached Gilligan, she was assaulted and left with swelling over her left eye. The day after the attack, Gilligan called her mobile phone while she was at work and threatened to kidnap her son if she wrote anything about him.

Despite these threats, Guerin continued to report on Gilligan and his gang.

At the time of her murder, she was in the process of pressing assault charges against him. This was a huge issue for the Ballyfermot gangster, as a prison sentence would isolate him from the streets and threaten his position as one of the country's leading importers of cannabis.

To prevent the case from moving forward, the gang decided that they needed to kill Guerin.

In 1999, one of Gilligan's men, Brian Meehan, was convicted of murdering the journalist.

Gilligan, on the other hand, fled to England in the aftermath of the shooting. However, in February 2000, he was extradited back to Ireland, where he was later sentenced to 28 years in prison for importing cannabis.

Further information is available in the "Photos" section below.

Photos

Photos of the road and other related images.

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