Behind the Headlines

Forthright, humorous but sometimes harrowing, the renowned journalist Alf McCreary provides a highly personal account of his life. From his birth and family ties in the village of Bessbrook in South Armagh during the 1940s, through his long, distinguished and sometimes turbulent career in the Northern Ireland media, and also abroad, he reflects on his own life experience and how it has shaped him.Despite having won two British National Press Awards and several local accolades including the title Northern Ireland Journalist of the Year; over 30 books published; Mary McAleese as a senior management colleague at Queen's University; reported on The Troubles including Bloody Sunday, Bloody Friday, Kingsmills and Enniskillen, and from world trouble spots including Vietnam, Cambodia , Zimbabwe and Rwanda; met and interviewed everyone from Daniel O'Donnell to Peter O'Toole and George Best; and from the Reverend Ian Paisley to the Dalai Lama; appointed MBE; covered Pope John Paul II's visit to Ireland and his funeral in Rome, reported on US President Ronald Reagan in Ballyporeen; and also counting Phil Coulter and Seamus Heaney among his Queen's contemporaries; it is Alf's dramatic personal story that takes centre stage, and rightly so.