Michael O’Farrell is an award-winning investigative journalist who works as the Investigations Editor for the Irish Mail on Sunday newspaper.

He is also a best-selling author and TV documentary producer.

This website is a repository of his journalism.

In the past 20 years Michael’s investigations have contributed to successful prosecutions against former Government Ministers, forced the resignation of State officials, resulted in changed legislation, helped migrant workers recover millions from their employers, spawned Revenue Investigations of tax fraudsters, resulted in police investigations into bribery, forced the closure of a dangerous multi-million euro cosmetic surgery clinic, been used as court evidence in the US and Ireland, exposed how a debt relief charity secretly and illegally sold confidential client data to a vulture fund revealed how the St John of God charity lied about secret payments worth millions to its top managers and exposed how a religious brother accused of abuse was shipped to Africa to work with children even as his order settled with victims back home.

International investigations presented here have followed child trafficking routes across India, documented police brutality in Africa, highlighted the vicious racism faced by the Roma community in Romania, and revealed the dangers and financial servitude global tobacco firms subject farming families to in Kenya.

Michael has been shortlisted for a multinational media award on three occasions, winning the award once for a series of articles on racism and migration.

He has been repetedly nominated for National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) journalism awards between 2004 and 2020 and been shortlisted as Newspaper Journalist Of The Year twice in 2011 and 2012.

In 2012 he was awarded Scoop Of The Year for a story in which members of Sean Quinn’s family were caught on video tape in Kiev discussing the illegal liquidation of their assets and their willingness to lie to the Irish courts.

In 2013 he was shortlisted as Business and Economics Journalist of the Year and that same year won the News Analysis Writer of the Year award.

In 2016 he was shortlisted in four National Journalism Award categories – Business Journalist of the Year, Business Story of the Year, Investigative Journalist of the Year and Scoop of the Year.

In 2017 he was named Investigative Journalist of the Year for his exposure of secret top ups worth millions to bosses at the publicly-funded St John of God charity.

In 2018 he was once again shortlisted in two National Journalism Award categories – Investigative Journalist of the Year and Scoop of the Year.

In 2019 he was named Business Journalist of the Year and shortlisted in three other National Journalism Award categories – Political Journalist of the Year, News Reporter of the Year and Business Story of the Year.

In 2020 he was nominated for Scoop of the Year, Political Journalist of the Year, Business Journalist of the Year and Investigative Journalist of the Year.

In the 2023 Irish Journalism Awards he was named Campaigning Journalist of the Year for his public-interest work with whistleblowers. He also won the Features Journalist of the Year category.

All of the more-recent stories and investigations published here on NewsScoops.org have been published in the Irish Mail on Sunday.

Some older stories were published by the Irish Examiner, then edited by Tim Vaughan and Brian Carroll.

None of these stories would have been possible were it not for the dedication and commitment to good journalism of those two newspapers.

Nothing published here would have been possible were it not for a wide range of others from senior editors to photographers and legal advisors.

These people are seldom named but play a vital role in the difficult process of getting tough stories right.

Some of these individuals include former Editor in Chief of the Irish Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, Sebastian Hamilton, current Editor in Chief Conor O’Donnell, Irish Mail on Sunday Editor, Robert Cox, former Deputy Mail on Sunday Editor, Enda Leahy, former News Editor Christrian McCashin and Irish Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday Picture Editor, James Meehan.

The Mail on Sunday’s in-house legal team, led by Michel Kealey, also plays a key role in many of these stories and investigations.

Most of the photos on this website have been taken by our team of photographers which includes Sean Dwyer, Michael Chester and Tom Honan.

But the most important and necessary element of this business is you – firstly as a reader and secondly as a person who may one day know something that simply stinks and needs to be exposed.

Hardly any of the material presented here would have been possible were it not for private individuals like you who trusted us with leads and information that made a vital difference to publishing the truth.

Some of you went even further and stood up publicly for what you believe in. Keep it up all of you – and so will we.