Garbhan Downey
Garbhan Downey signs a copy of Private Diary of a Suspended MLA for his son Fiachra (November 2004).
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams discusses life as
a suspended MLA with Downey on Channel 9's Agenda.
Downey signs a copy of Running
Mates for Derry's mayor
Helen Quigley.
At the launch of Yours Confidentially, April
08.
Derry News editor Downey with First
Minister David Trimble and DFM Mark Durkan.
Biography
Garbhan Downey was born on February 24, 1966 in Derry. He went to school at Rosemount P.S. and St Columb's College - and along the way played rhythm guitar in a band that never made it out of the garage.
In 1984, he travelled to University College Galway to study languages (French and Latin) and on his first day was sitting in the corner of class, minding his own business, when a very beautiful Monaghan girl, Una McNally, came in and sat down beside him, claiming she had "no book". The book fell out of her bag on the way out of the room, but they got married anyway 11 years later. They have two children Fiachra (1998) and Bronagh (2003).
While at UCG, Downey became involved in student politics and, after graduating in 1987, became full-time SU deputy-president. It was at this time that he began his lifelong love affair with the media and became editor of the college magazine, Student.
In 1988, Downey moved to Dublin to become deputy-president of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI). During this time, he also wrote regularly for the organisation's newspaper USI News and produced a comprehensive Student Welfare Manual, which was distributed to colleges across the country.
Downey then headed back north to take a Masters in Computing at the University of Ulster, during which time he reported on Irish affairs for the International Union of Students. But as soon as he graduated (1991), he reverted immediately to freelance journalism.
He got his first break courtesy of the Derry Journal, contributing music, radio, TV and newspaper-watch columns. He also began scripting and broadcasting opinion pieces for BBC Radio Foyle. In 1992, he got a job as a staff reporter with the Londonderry Sentinel where he learned the rudiments of covering courts, councils, and football matches. During this period, he began doing "corr" work for the Irish News and eventually went full-time freelance with the paper, helping set up its North West edition. He also got to cover the 1994 World Cup for the IN after initially being threatened with the sack for deserting his post to fly out to it. His fans-eye columns from New York and Orlando were subsequently compiled into his first book Just One Big Party (Forum Books).
After he got married in 1995, Downey and his wife Una lived in the US for several months, where he contributed pieces to the Irish Echo (New York) and sent a regular Letter from America home to the Derry Journal. He then returned to Derry, where he worked with BBC Radio Foyle as a reporter, newsreader and presenter [Morning Programme, News at One, Sportsdesk, Look West]. And in 1998 he joined the BBC staff in Belfast, working on the radio desk as Assistant News Editor. He did the daily commute of 150 miles for a little over a year, before returning to Derry where he worked as a senior producer in the Radio Foyle newsroom.
In 1998, Guildhall Press commissioned Downey and the historian Michael McGuinness to write a "people's history" of Creggan, a mammoth task they completed in 2000. Creggan: More than a History sold out two print-runs and is one of the most sought-after local history books in the North.
In 2001, Downey left the BBC to take charge at the Derry News. He had actually applied for a sabbatical from the BBC to finish the book of short stories that became Off Broadway, but when the offer to edit a newspaper arose, he couldn't turn it down.
During his period as editor (2001-2004), the Derry News won two Newspaper Society awards for Fastest Circulation Growth in the UK. Downey also found himself before the courts after he refused to hand over photographs of the Real IRA attacking an (unmanned) army spy-post, arguing that such a move could put his staff in danger.
While editing the paper, Downey was also a regular face on local TV and hosted a weekly edition of the politics programme 'Agenda' on Channel 9.
The lure of fiction writing was very strong, however, and Downey was to link up with Guildhall Press again in 2004 to produce The Private Diary of a Suspended MLA, a satire on the peace process. The Sunday Times described the book as the "best Northern Ireland political novel of the century".
He began writing Off Broadway in 1995 and finally completed it in May 2005. Published by Guildhall Press, the book is a series of interwoven short stories that take a viciously funny look at the rise of crookery and roguery in Ireland since the ceasefires. Reviews of the book were very favourable, with the Irish News comparing the author to Dickens.
In 2007, Downey's third fiction, Running Mates, was published by Blackstaff Press. The book centred on a tremendously corrupt race for the Irish presidency and was critically praised. It also led to Downey enjoying a three-week stint as an election pundit on TV3, with Ireland's top comedian Brendan O'Carroll.
At this time, Downey helped establish the Northern Ireland literary review Verbal and edited the publication for its first six issues.
For the past year, Downey has been writing full-time. He published Yours Confidentially with Guildhall Press in April 2008 and is currently researching a political biography. He has also completed an advanced draft of a sequel to Running Mates, called Across The Line, in which the Taoiseach and British Prime Minister are compelled to join forces to prevent gold-digging northerners from redrawing the border.
Outside work, Downey spends his free time ferrying youngsters to football, Gaelic, swimming and Irish dancing. He also loves to watch soccer on Sky Sports, though less and less now since the children learned to operate the remote control.