Writer who helped charities dies at 82.

The funeral of Joseph McKiernan will take place at 1pm today at the Holy Name Church, Mitchell Avenue, Jesmond, Newcastle.

Known to friends and colleagues as Joe, he was probably best known to Journal readers as the book reviewer Peter Dundy. An avid reader and a lover of books, Joe took his pen name from one of the characters in The Third Policeman, the novel by the Irish writer and wit Flann O'Brien.

Joe, who lived in South Gosforth, was born in County Cavan, Ireland, and began his journalistic career on the Belfast Telegraph.

Following his marriage to Nancy, he went to work in what was then the Central African Federation for the Rhodesia Herald at a time of much political unrest.

In 1958 he joined our sister paper, the Evening Chronicle, as a reporter and at the time of his retirement in 1991 he was science editor. He worked closely with Daisy Clark in setting up the Charlie Bear Appeal to which readers contributed over pounds 1.2m to purchase the first all-body scanner in the North-East. In retirement he continued to support cancer charities in the North-East of England. Joe, who leaves a son and three daughters, died in St Oswald's Hospice, Gosforth, at the age of 82.