Michael Clifford (journalist)
Michael Clifford is an Irish author and investigative journalist currently working as a special correspondent with The Irish Examiner. He was awarded the title "Journalist of the Year" in 2016, having won acclaim for his work in exposing the smear campaign against Irish police whistleblower Maurice McCabe by senior members of the Garda Síochána. In 2014, TV3's Tonight with Vincent Browne named him "Journalist of the Year" for his work on the McCabe story.
He is a regular interviewer and interviewee on Irish television and radio. When Vincent Brown retired from his popular current affairs television programme in 2017, Clifford was tipped as one of his most likely successor. Recently he has stood in for Eamon Dunphy on the latter's "The Stand" podcast, having previously been a regular guest.
In 2018, he called for an investigation into the Irish Prison Service, having claimed that "a serving prison officer has made certain claims in a sworn affidavit to the Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan about methods used to stem the suspected flow of drugs and mobile phones into prisons – by prisoners and prison officers".
Clifford has written four books; the non-fiction "Bertie Ahern and the Drumcondra Mafia", "A Force for Justice: The Maurice McCabe Story", and two crime novels; "Ghost Town" was published in 2012. He lives in Dublin.
