University to set up public archive of late Robert Fisk

Middle East Independent journalist interviewed Osama Bin Laden and reported from Baghdad during the US invasion

- HOLLY EVANS

Funding of €200,000 (£167,800) has been given to Trinity College Dublin to set up a publicly available archive on the work Fisk holding the front page of The Independent during a speech at Georgetown University (Kpa/Zuma/Shutterstock) of the renowned journalist Robert Fisk of The Independent who passed away in 2020.

Over his 30-year career with the newspaper, he continued his reputation as one of the best-known Middle East correspondents who spent his career reporting from the region and challenging mainstream narratives.

This included reporting from Baghdad in Iraq during the US invasion, covering the Bosnian War and the Syrian Civil War, as well as being one of the only Western journalists to interview Osama Bin Laden. Fisk died in November 2020 at a hospital in Dublin at the age of 74, shortly after falling ill at his home in the Irish capital.

Notes and documents from Fisk’s 50-year journalistic career were donated to Trinity College Dublin’s library by his widow, Nelofer Pazira-Fisk. Fisk received a PhD in political science from Trinity in 1985 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2008. Trinity College Dublin has pledged to make the archive fully accessible, both online and in person, as soon as possible.