The former executive director of the Centre for Public Inquiry, investigative journalist Frank Connolly, has been appointed as a senior reporter with Village magazine.
The Centre for Public Inquiry closed down last month following a decision by Atlantic Philanthropies, the charity founded by American billionaire Chuck Feeney, to withdraw funding.
This followed allegations made by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell in the Dáil that Mr Connolly had travelled to Colombia in 2001 under a false passport with an IRA leader.
Mr Connolly has consistently denied the claim.
Mr Connolly was interviewed by gardaí in 2002 who asked him about the alleged trip to Colombia. In 2003, the Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to bring any charges against him.
In a statement last night Village said that Mr Connolly was one of the foremost investigative journalists in the country and that he had been the first to write reports about payments to former minister Ray Burke by construction firm JMSE in 1989 and about Garda scandals in Donegal.
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