Crooks: The Stories Behind the Headlines was launched by broadcaster Pat Kenny at an event held in Whelan’s Pub in Dublin on Tuesday evening.
Williams described the book not as an autobiography or memoir, but rather a behind-the-scenes look at how the biggest stories during his career were covered.
Book ‘Crooks’ by Paul Williams
“It’s been likened to a ride along, where we bring the reader behind the scenes of the kind of things that happened when we were trying to investigate stories, the reality of life for all crime reporters,” he said.
“I hope it puts in context for the reader the fact that crime journalism is the most dangerous and hazardous aspect of the media industry. What I experienced and the things I went through are also being replicated in the lives of other crime journalists.
“It’s not a very safe business. When people don’t like what you write about normally they would sue or make a complaint to the Press Council. In the business of crime reporting, like a lot of our colleagues have found, the criminals resort to intimidation and threats.”
He said he was unsure when he started writing Crooks where the book was going to go, and he spent some time going back through old files and records to jog his memory.
“What I found interesting, what I wanted to write about, was that I witnessed the rough draft of criminal history in Ireland.
“I was there to write about the seminal events that changed and helped create the gangland state we have today where organised crime is accepted as a normal aspect of life. I witnessed the different events that brought it to where we are today.”
Reflecting on advice he had received to take a step back from his work as it grew more dangerous, Williams said he had “incrementally slipped into a darker world” over the years.
“It wasn’t something you set out to get involved in. There were times when people said ‘maybe step back from this’ like the guards for example. But the thing about it is we have a job to do.
“Our job is to highlight a darker side of life and particularly in organised crime, there is a trail of misery and destruction in people’s lives, an army of victims. If you stopped writing about it, and we rationalised this as we went along, if we were afraid and we pulled back, then they [the criminals] have won.”
It is the job of a journalist to give victims a voice and tell their stories, Williams said, and he credited his colleagues for their contributions along the way.
“This book is not about my career, it’s about the people and celebrating the people I met along the way, the people who made all of this possible. You don’t go out and expose criminals by yourself, there are editors, subeditors, lawyers, they’re all part of it,” he said.
He also remembered Sunday Independent reporter Veronica Guerin and Sunday World reporter Martin O’Hagan, journalists who reported on organised crime and were murdered.
“We have this rare distinction as a small, little island on the edge of western Europe, of having more journalists murdered per head of population than anywhere else in western Europe,” he said.
Crooks: The Stories Behind the Headlines by Paul Williams is available in book shops on November 7.
