Liam Collins

And Angus had said, when he was sending me out, he said, you know, she seems to be the only one who's able to get stories in this town.

That was kind of prophetic because suddenly she arrived and each time,

There was front page stories.

One of the things that appealed to Angus about her was that she wasn't a trained journalist as such.

You know, she hadn't gone to journalism college or anything like that.

She was independent.

She was a story getter and she operated from her car and her mobile phone.

And it was kind of very new.

The rest of us, we appeared in the office at 10 o'clock and we left at six or seven, unless we were assigned, as I was quite often, to go down to country on a story where you just went off and did your thing.

Liam remembers her as someone who was fun to be around, a vibrant personality.

She was a good person.

And I remember...

And vividly one day I was on the desk and there were, I think it was a story about Bishop Comiskey.

The phone was ringing, people complaining about it because churchmen at the time were regarded as sacrosanct.

And Veronica was sitting there and after it rang for the third time, she said mischievously, like, can I answer it, please?

And she picked up the phone and the person obviously was

astonished that suddenly she was talking to Veronica and backed down very quickly.

No, no, no.

That was something, it was almost organic, you know, it developed.

Looking back, you can see it on those pages of the paper.