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Obituary: Don Buckley, leading journalist who helped expose Garda ‘heavy gang' and Kerry Babies scandal
Born in Cork city on June 15, 1950, he was the first of six children born to Daniel Buckley and his wife Mary.
He attended St Patrick's Boys' National School before going on to secondary at the Patrician Academy in Mallow.
Like many of his generation he was politically awakened in the 1960s and even at the young age of 13 he refused to eat a tin of peaches because it was from apartheid South Africa.
Buckley's schooling was interrupted by ill health but that did not deter him from taking the newly-established course in journalism at the Rathmines College of Commerce in 1970-71.
Having contributed freelance articles to The Irish Times, he got a job on the paper as a features sub-editor in 1973.
He transferred to the newsroom as a reporter in 1975 where, along with Renagh Holohan who had received information about a garda unit's methods in its investigation of a train robbery at Sallins in 1976, and the late Joe Joyce, he became deeply involved in a special investigation of the so-called 'heavy gang' within An Garda Síochána.
There was concern within the force itself about the manner in which crime suspects were being treated, in physical and psychological terms. Two gardaí separately contacted the paper's features editor at the time, Conor Brady with one of them saying: 'The situation is getting out of control.'
Encouraged by Gerry Mulvey on the newsdesk, Buckley, Holohan and Joyce launched an in-depth investigation that lasted about six weeks. Publication of their findings in February 1977 was courageously approved by the paper's editor at the time, the late Fergus Pyle.
The coverage generated widespread shock and led to restrictions on activities of the gardaí in question, which had a long-term impact on the criminal justice system — although members of the squad always denied the allegations and rejected the 'heavy gang' label.
Buckley left The Irish Times in 1979 to help establish Dublin local newspaper Southside where he met Peter Murtagh, who recalled in a comprehensive tribute at last week's funeral: 'For a few years, Don and I were inseparable as he tutored me, schooled me and knocked my natural inquisitiveness into shape as a passable reporter.'
Buckley also worked with Vincent Browne as news editor of the Sunday Tribune in 1983. Returning to freelance work, he contributed articles to this newspaper as well as the Observer and the London-based Independent.
In 1984, Buckley and Joyce carried out an exposé for the Sunday Independent of the Kerry Babies case where Joanne Hayes was wrongly accused of the murder of a new-born baby found on a beach with a broken neck and 28 stab wounds.
In 2020, the State apologised to her for the false accusation and the 'appalling hurt and distress caused' as a result.
A Labour Party supporter most of his life, Buckley ran as a candidate in the 1985 local elections in Dublin's north-inner city, against future taoiseach Bertie Ahern of Fianna Fáil and Independent Tony Gregory, who got over 8,000 first preferences between them, compared to Don's modest 226 figure.
In 1987 he returned to The Irish Times where he spent the next 15 years. Appointment as a reporter in 1988 was followed by promotion to assistant news editor and later deputy news editor. Buckley held advice sessions with individual journalists at nearby Bewley's Cafe on Westmoreland Street, beginning with the words: 'I'm giving this an hour...'
Murtagh, who was also on the staff, recalls: 'Don loved managing the story — getting the first take written, subbed and printed, but holding back a follow-up angle for day two, then engineering another follow-up — maybe getting a politician to comment or having somebody put down a question for the minister. We all learnt from him.'
Retiring from The Irish Times due to ill health at the age of 52, Don remained active and, along with Joan Fitzpatrick, set up the bimonthly Irish Property Buyer magazine in 2004 which continued publication until 2008. His final project was to help with Robert O'Byrne's Dictionary of Living Irish Artists, issued in 2010 by Plurabelle Publishing.
Don suffered from haemophilia but, as Peter Murtagh said, 'he refused to let illness and its relentless assault on his body define his life'.
He died just six days short of his 75th birthday and, predeceased by his brother John, is survived by his sisters Joan, Margaret, Catherine and his brother David.
