A reporter renowned for her fearless exposure of crime

"For courage and tenacity that goes beyond what most journalists consider reasonable, the panel this year has decided to make a special distinction award for her work in covering the darker dangerous stories of crime and violence in our society."

So read the citation when Veronica Guerin (34) was presented with a special ESB/National Media Award on October 25th last year.

In November she received another such award, in New York, from the Committee to Protect Journalists - "for her fearless exposure of the Dublin criminal underworld," noted the chairman of Independent Newspapers, Dr Tony O'Reilly, in his chairman's report last April.

Journalism was a late vocation. She wrote her first story, for the Sunday Business Post, in 1990. In mid-1993 she moved to the Sunday Tribune, and began work with the Sunday Independent early in 1994.

Reared in Artane in north Dublin with two brothers and two sisters, her family is close knit and deeply committed to Fianna Fail. They are close, to the Haughey family. Her husband, Mr Graham Turley, was best man at Mr Ciara Haughey's wedding Her son, Cathal (7), is called after Mr Charles Haughey. "She was a passionate CJH fan", according to Mr Sean Haughey.

It is understood she was considering whether to stand for Fianna Fail at the next general election. Discussions had taken place with senior party figures, and she was giving the matter serious consideration. One of her closest friends Mr Paddy Prenderville, editor of the Phoenix magazine, described her last night as "a very committed constitutional republican".

She studied accountancy at Trinity College, Dublin, before joining her father's accountancy firm, Guerin and Reid, in Gardiner Street. At the same time she was active in Ogra Fianna Fail becoming chairwoman of its Dublin North Central branch in 1979. Mr Sean Haughey was secretary. Her future husband, Mr Graham Turley, from Coolock in north Dublin, was also a member.

When her father died in the early 1980s, she left accountancy and set up her own public relations firm. In 1983-84 she served as secretary to the Fianna Fail group at the New Ireland Forum.

She married in 1985. Among, the attendance at the wedding was the Fianna Fail national organiser, Mr P.J. Mara, and his wife Breda.

He says she was "a very strong active supporter of Fianna Fail until the time she died". He also remembers her as a fanatical Manchester United follower.

In 1986, she studied for a diploma in marketing at the College of Marketing and Design in Mountjoy Square while working in public relations, mainly with travel and airline firms. She also served as a researcher with Fianna, Fail at Leinster House when the party was in opposition in the 1980s.

She began working on a freelance basis for the Sunday Business Post almost six years ago. One of those she came to for assistance in her new career in those days was Mr Prenderville. "I helped her when she was starting," he recalled, "but she left me standing within a year and a half."

Over the next three years she wrote many of the Sunday Business Post's main investigative stories, including reports of problems at the debt ridden Aer Lingus Holidays company, the Goodman International story, reports on Aer Rianta's duty free contracts in Pakistan and Russia, and the tapping of the mobile phone of the Taoiseach, John Bruton.

The latter story led to her being convicted of disseminating the contents of illegally intercepted telephone communications. She and the newspaper's editor, Mr Damien Kiberd, were fined £600 each. The political editor of the paper, Ms Emily O'Reilly, recalls her as "driven - days off didn't mean a thing to her". She remembers her "awful fascination with the job ... like a war reporter".

It was at the Sunday Independent that she began her in depth reports on Dublin's criminal underworld. Soon afterwards she suffered the first of the three physical attacks on her.

A family friend recalls meeting Ms Guerin recently at a get together. "Veronica was beside herself that day because Man United had won their second cup of the season. Her mother is a widow - not terribly well, but a very funny, hearty Dubliner. No messing. No pretensions. Her family spoke worriedly about her but in an accepting way. The gardai kept them constantly praised."

Colleagues invariably speak of her boundless generosity to other journalists - the "hard cookie" image masking a heart that pulled friends through deep crises.