Desire for justice born form love for legal dramas
Lifestyle - Barna man Frank Greaney has covered some of the country’s most high-profile and disturbing murder cases in his work for Newstalk and Today FM. His new book which draws on one of the most disturbing, is about restoring a murdered woman’s reputation, as he explains to JUDY MURPHY
When journalist Frank Greaney texts his family or friends at odd hours of the day or night telling them he loves them, that’s when they know he’s covering a particularly difficult court case, one that reminds him of what’s important in life.
In recent years, as Courts Correspondent for Newstalk and Today FM, the Barna man has reported on several high-profile, often disturbing trials. They include the horrific murders of Ana Kriégel, Elaine O’Hara and Bobby Ryan – nicknamed the Mr Moonlight case because of the victim’s DJing name – as well as of Patricia O’Connor.
Not that Frank needs reminding about family. The multi-award-winning journalist refers several times during our interview to his late father John – who died in January 2018, aged 74 and who had a huge influence on his son’s life.
Frank describes John as an old-fashioned father in that “he wouldn’t be putting his arms around you, but you knew he loved you and he had such respect for people”. John, who had worked on building sites in London and in Ireland, gave up work to care for his wife, Noreen, when she got Multiple Sclerosis, and for their children, Frank, Eileen, Gertrude and John. Even in death, the man Frank affectionally called ‘Pops’ remains his guiding star.
“He loved crime dramas,” recalls Frank whose childhood passion for the same genre made him decide to become a lawyer. He studied Corporate Law at NUIG following his secondary education in St Enda’s, Salthill, where his English teacher Séamus Kelly was another formative influence.
Frank laughs as he recalls how the reality of corporate law “was nothing like [the TV series] Matlock. I felt if I did pursue a career in it, it would be for the wrong reasons”.
Still, he finished his degree, “working in every pub and restaurant in Galway” to fund his way through college, and then went travelling. That was when he got the reporting bug and despite setbacks, he persevered until he got a formal qualification – perseverance has been as important as talent in his success to date.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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