The location where Veronica Guerin was killed

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 stopped her red Opel Calibra at the traffic lights beside 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. The hitmen then turned right onto Belgard Road and drove in the direction of Tallaght.

The crime sparked public outrage, 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.

Members of a drug gang murdered Guerin. 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. Although he had 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 in the newspaper.

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 big issue for the Ballyfermot gangster, as a prison sentence would isolate him from his suppliers 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.

Photos

Photos of the road and other related images.

Crime scene

This aerial photograph shows the exact location where Guerin was shot dead.

In 1998, there was a traffic light junction between Boot Road and the N7 Naas Road. However, this no longer exists.

Nowadays, motorists on Boot Road can only access the N7 by using the roundabout near Kingswood Cross.

At the time of the shooting, the journalist was speaking on the phone. Her last words were, "I did very well. Ah, fined a maximum of 150 pounds. Alt...". At that point, the call was interrupted by the sound of a large crack.

This was not the first time she had been shot. In January 1995, a gunman arrived at her home in Cloghran and shot her in the leg. The year before that, two bullets were fired at her house. Despite these attempts to scare her, Guerin continued to report on organized crime.

John Gilligan and Brian Meehan

John Gilligan and Brian Meehan are pictured above.

Meehan was found guilty of Guerin's murder in 1999 and sentenced to life in prison.

Following the shooting, Gilligan fled to England. However, he was extradited back to Ireland in 2000. Shortly afterwards, he was found guilty of importing cannabis and sentenced to 28 years in prison.

In October 2013, Gilligan was released after serving 17 years.

On March 1st, 2014, he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt at his brother's home in Greenfort Crescent, Clondalkin. It is believed the Kinahan cartel ordered the hit after the newly-released gangster tried to muscle in on the drug trade.

Fifteen days after the attempt, Gilligan's bodyguard, Stephen Douglas "Dougie" Moran, was shot dead at his home.

After being discharged from the hospital, Gilligan left Ireland.

Memorial plaque

A commemorative plaque was unveiled in the area in June 2002. It can be found amid the trees at the entrance to Boot Road, near the N7.

Initially, there were plans to name the bridge at Newlands Cross after Veronica Guerin. However, the idea led to political squabbling among some of the councilors in South Dublin County Council.

The plan was eventually dropped in 2015 after the journalist's brother, Jimmy Guerin, stated that the family did not want the flyover to be named after her if the idea was going to be turned into a "political football."

Guerin was killed just two days before she was due to give a speech at a Freedom Forum conference in London about journalists at risk.

Coordinates: 53.312080, -6.398000

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