Ireland

Joe Joyce: ‘Brilliant investigative reporter’, author and playwright dies aged 77

Joyce was co-author of The Boss, about former taoiseach Charles Haughey’s time in government in 1982

Joe Joyce: 'a brilliant investigative reporter and story teller and a great colleague'

Mary Carolan
Thu Jun 6 2024 - 13:21

Author, playwright and award-winning journalist Joe Joyce has died.

Mr Joyce (77) twice won Journalist of the Year and was the author of seven historical and crime thrillers, including the Echoland trilogy of historical spy novels set in Dublin during the second World War.

His first thriller, Off the Record, published in 1990, was set in the worlds of journalism and politics.

He also wrote non-fiction works, including The Boss: Charles J. Haughey in Government, co-authored with fellow journalist Peter Murtagh. Published in 1983, the book focused on the 1982 government led by Mr Haughey.

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Both journalists had earlier co-authored Blind Justice, about the controversial Garda investigation and court cases following the 1976 Sallins mail train robbery.

Two men charged in connection with the robbery were acquitted on grounds their statements were taken under duress while a third man, Nicky Kelly, was released on humanitarian grounds in 1984 and later received a presidential pardon. All three alleged they were beaten during interrogation by gardaí and signed statements under duress.

Mr Joyce was also the author of a history/biography of the Guinness family and of a critically acclaimed play, The Tower, about James Joyce and Oliver St John Gogarty.

He worked with several media organisations during a long career, including The Irish Times, where he was a staff reporter, and contributed to the From The Archives column for many years.

He was Dublin correspondent of the Guardian newspaper and also worked with the Reuters news agency.

During his journalistic career, he won Journalist of the Year twice.

With fellow journalists Don Buckley and Renagh Holohan, he broke the story about the existence of a ‘heavy gang’ within An Garda Síochána.

In 1984, he and Don Buckley wrote a story that led to the setting up of the Kerry Babies tribunal of inquiry.

Published just days after a Garda case against Joanne Hayes and her family was dropped, the story criticised both the Garda interrogation of the family and the Garda theory concerning the April 1984 discovery of a newborn baby’s body, with multiple stab wounds, on White Strand beach, Cahirciveen, Co Kerry, and the separate uncovering, two weeks later, of the body of another baby boy on the Hayes family farm at Abbeydorney.

In 2020, the State apologised to Ms Hayes for wrongly accusing her of the murder of the Cahirciveen baby and for the “appalling hurt and distress caused”.

Mr Murtagh and Geraldine Kennedy, a former editor of The Irish Times, were both close friends of Mr Joyce and expressed sorrow on Thursday at the news of his death.

Mr Murtagh described Mr Joyce as “a brilliant investigative reporter and story teller and a great colleague” who was “very thoughtful and brought a really deep political understanding and nous to our work”.

Ms Kennedy said Mr Joyce was “a very good friend and colleague” from whom she had learned a lot and received “the most wonderful training” when she joined The Irish Times. “He maintained a huge interest in current affairs right up to the end,” she said.

Mr Joyce, a native of Ballinasloe, Co Galway, pursued a career in journalism after studying English and Sociology at University College Galway.

He lived in Sandycove, Co Dublin, and died early on Thursday, having been ill for a time. He is survived by his wife, journalist Frances O’Rourke, and their three daughters: Catherine, Joanna and Molly.

Mary Carolan

Mary Carolan

Mary Carolan is the Legal Affairs Correspondent of the Irish Times

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