The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
The Blennerville man behind the story shaking the world
MULTI award winning Kerry born journalist Gerard Ryle is leading the international team of investigative journalists that has rocked the global elite with the release of the, so called, ‘Paradise Papers’.
The release of the papers – one of the largest financial leaks in history – has exposed how politicians, celebrities, mega corporations and some of the world’s wealthiest people have used complicated offshore structures to avoid paying higher taxes.
So far the ‘Paradise Papers’ – named for the idyllic tropical locations whose which are home to many the offshore firms named in the leak – have revealed the financial secrets of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth; Bono; Apple; Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton; a top Trump aide; Everton Football Club and even three stars of hit BBC sitcom ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’.
Further revelations about the secret financial arrangements of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful are expected to emerge over the next week.
As with the Panama Papers – a similar trove of documents released in 2016 –the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a global network of investigative journalists, was called in to examine the 13.4 million leaked files.
ICIJ journalists – along with nearly 100 media partners in 67 countries – spent a year examining the documents and following the money trail.
The ICIJ – set up in 1997 – has its headquarters Washington DC from where its 200 strong team of investigative journalists are led by Gerard Ryle.
Ryle – who was born in Curragraigue near Blennerville and grew up in Kerry – joined the ICIJ in 2011 as the agency’s first non-American Director.
He left Ireland in 1988 to work in Australia where – over the course of a 26 year career in journalism – he broke some of the biggest stories in Australian journalism.
Last April Ryle and his ICIJ colleagues were awarded a Pulitzer Prize for their work on the Panama Papers.