Richard Downes

Richard Downes was born in Dublin and left in the dog days of the 1980s to pursue a career in journalism in London.

After working in the financial press for a while, he joined the BBC where he worked for a decade. For three and a half years he crossed the African continent covering wars and insurrections, rebellions and catastrophies. A BBC posting to Amman in Jordan in 1998 opened up the Middle East and its many conflicts, but it was in Iraq that he found his niche. Then isolated through international sanctions, Iraq and its people came to fascinate Downes.

On returning to work for RTÉ in Dublin, he continued his passion for Iraq and returned to Baghdad numerous times. For the 2003 war he stayed in Baghdad and covered the collapse of Saddam's regime from within. Vincent Browne described him as 'the best reporter covering the war'. He has continued to travel to Iraq in the chaotic post-war era and has witnessed the collapse of this once strong and stable country close up.

Richard is married with two children and lives on Dublin's Northside. In Search of Iraq (New Island, 2006) was his first book.