THE former secretary-general of the Garda Federation, Mr Chris Finnegan, is joining Independent Network News (INN) as a crime and security correspondent.
INN is a new service which will provide a national and international news service to 20 local radio stations around the country from June 6th.
Mr Finnegan joined the Garda in 1964, becoming a detective in 1970. A former member of the drug squad, he was appointed general secretary of the Garda Federation, the organisation which broke from the Garda Representative Association in 1994. He resigned from the Garda last year and from the Garda Federation two weeks ago.
The INN managing director, Mr Andrew Hanlon, said be believed Mr Finnegan would bring his years of experience to the news service.
Other journalists appointed include Mr John Cooney, as political correspondent, and a former deputy editor of the Sunday Press, Ms Mary Kerrigan, as deputy editor.
The former news editor of Clare FM, Mr Alan Cantwell, has also joined the service, as has Ms Anne Cadwallader, who was a duty news editor with Radio Ireland and a former Northern correspondent with the Irish Press.
