GRA Protest, An Garda Siochana, Dail Protest, GARDA REPRESENTATIVE Association, Croke Park Deal

GRA Protest, An Garda Siochana, Dail Protest, GARDA REPRESENTATIVE Association, Croke Park Deal

THE GARDA REPRESENTATIVE Association is staging a placard protest outside Dáil Eireann against the Croke Park II deal that proposes to cut public sector pay.

The GRA says the deal now being voted on by the trade union movement is “blatantly unfair” and have questioned the Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s judgement for allowing it to be put on the table.

The association have also accused the government of “sidelining” An Garda Síochána by not offering them a seat in the negotiations between government and the trade unions.

The GRA’s General Secretary, PJ Stone, said it was disappointing that in order to make savings the gardaí were being targeted:

It is a disappointment to the GRA to learn that the Government were now intent on extending the Croke Park deal to facilitate savings to the magnitude of €60 million over three years from the pension and pay of members of An Garda Síochána.

The 24/7 Frontline Service Alliance says the deal will result in pay cuts of between 3 and 11 per cent for many workers, and are calling for it to be rejected. However, SIPTU, the union representing more than 200,000 members,  said that the proposals on the table were “the best that could be obtained through negotiation” and are urging for a ‘yes’ vote.

garda adrian donohoe murder, suspects, arrests, credit union robbery, reward, an garda siochana, sinn fein, gerry adams td

garda adrian donohoe murder, suspects, arrests, credit union robbery, reward, an garda siochana, sinn fein, gerry adams td

Gardaí are appealing for anyone with information to contact them at the incident room at Dundalk Garda Station on 042-9388470 or the Confidential Line 1800-666111.

Spawn of the Provo Beast

Over a 40 year period up to and including the present day the criminal activity of Provisional Sinn Fein/IRA and their various surrogates have turned the beautiful countryside of south Armagh and its neighbouring counties Monaghan and Louth into a criminal black-spot on the Irish landscape, only a few short months ago Provisional Sinn Fein/IRA criminals kidnapped, butchered and murdered 21 year old Paul Quinn in Monaghan, his cowardly murderers are unlikely to be brought to justice as the Provisional Sinn Fein/IRA crime empire demands silence from those who know about their heinous criminality. Prior to being parachuted into Louth for the last General Election, Gerry Adams TD and his hench-men meet with the leaders of the Real IRA in Louth in order to ensure that Adams would be able to run for election without opposition of interference, in return Adams offered to use his position to demand better conditions for Real IRA prisoners, both in the north and in the Republic.

Adams had decided to run across the border as the embarrassing trial of the paedophile brother he protected is expected to bring much unwanted publicity, Adams had concealed the rape of his 4 year old niece Aine Tyrell (her claims of rape by her father Liam Dominic Adams were accepted by Gerry Adams TD but he failed to go to the authorities either north or south). Adams was also forced to admit that he had concealed the serial child rape crimes of his father Gerry Adams Snr, and to add insult to the injury of the children raped and in order to maintain their silence Gerry Adams TD gave  

The murder of Garda Adrian Donohoe last week has left the good and decent people of the ‘border’ counties stunned and shocked, and it is the legacy of fear embedded in those communities by Provo criminality that may see much needed information being untold as people will be branded touts. While Garda Adrian Donohoe may not have been shot dead by the Provos, we can be certain that it is the Provo legacy of criminality and brutality that created the conditions for the on-going criminality in that area. We can be certain that there is some connection between the murderers of Garda Donohoe and the Provo mafia that continues to operate in the ‘border’ counties. Gerry Adams TD may offer crocodile tears to the family and colleagues of Garda Donohoe, however, the truth is that Adams is a coward who could easily order the murder of Jean McConville and many other innocent men, women and children. Adams likes to brand his crimes as political, however, only the devil himself could described concealing child rape as political.

From the fields and lanes around the Border, the killers of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe sprung.

They fled back to the same lawless territory after the outrage and now this Border Country is where they are seeking to hide from the biggest Garda manhunt since the murder of Veronica Guerin. The Garda are joined in force by their professional colleagues in the PSNI.

The most hunted killers in Ireland are a feral young breed, a new generation of criminals and racketeers whose iron hold over the border has turned a strip of Ireland into an outlaw land.

Reared in a lawless region where criminality is deeply embedded, they have been brought up in the shadow of diesel laundering, tobacco smuggling, murder and rape.

However, the older command are now struggling to control the wild younger generations of gangs that they have spawned. And this week the monster they created became a nightmare of their own making.

Today the multi-million-euro diesel laundering industry is shut down, the tobacco smugglers are grounded and the lawless border has come under the intense and unwelcome spotlight of An Garda Síochána and the PSNI.

Teams of detectives are combing the area for clues to the young outlaws who executed Garda Adrian Donohoe last week at Lordship Credit Union outside Dundalk.

Blue uniforms are knocking at every door and the region's web-like road network and dirt tracks - many of which have been laid by smugglers - are being mapped out in the hunt.

Attention

'Business' has ground to a halt and countless diesel-laundering operations that had before gone un-noticed have come to the attention of a 100-man Garda team intent on leaving no stone unturned in the hunt for the killers.

Sources say there will be no quick arrests of the gang members suspected of being behind the capital murder - the most serious offence that can be committed in the Irish Republic and one which carries a 40-year jail term.

Progress is slow. And currently there is little point in arresting anyone as there is a mountain of work to do before anything of substance can be put to the five that carried out the raid. Those that stole the car to order days previous in Clogherhead and the people who hid, fuelled and later torched the getaway vehicle.

Senior sources say that the car used by the raiders could have used any of 35 different routes through the area known as Bandit Country to make their escape.

It is understood that hours of CCTV footage from a network of winding roads will be painstakingly gone through over the coming weeks to track the car from Lordship, Co. Louth, to Keady, Co. Armagh, where it was burnt out.

The car was torched in a professional job that left nothing save the chassis number, which has identified it as a 2 litre diesel Volkswagen Passat stolen in Clogherhead days previously and stored for the robbery.

Gardai believe it was stolen to order for the raid on Lordship Credit Union last week by local thieves connected to the south Armagh-based gang, who chose a night that a popular barman in Clogherhead was being waked.

Torched

However, the thieves had to break into the house of a couple to take the keys of the vehicle between 11.30pm and 4.30am, so officers are hopeful they have left fingerprints or other forensic evidence.

They are also hoping to pick them up around the area on CCTV footage.

It is believed that the car was stored and the tank filled to prepare it for the raid and Gardai say anyone involved in any aspect of preparing it could be facing capital murder charges or conspiracy to murder.

Across the Border PSNI officers are working to identify gang members who were waiting at Keady to torch the car. Sources say they too will face the most serious charges in connection with the crime.

Bandit Country has been notoriously difficult to police over decades of Provo crime in that part of Ireland. It is made up of a spider's web of winding roads and dirt tracks used by smugglers, and has long been a stronghold of support for the IRA and other criminal gangs involved in fuel smuggling and armed raids.

A lawlessness and criminality is deeply embedded in this region of north Louth and south Armagh, which is mainly Republican.

It was Christened 'Bandit Country' in the early 1970s by Britain's then Northern Secretary Merlyn Rees.

The Cooley and Mourne Mountains straddle the Border and rise up above small villages often divided into two jurisdictions, giving criminals an advantage over police. The area around Culloville, where the man believed to have aimed and fired the shotgun is from, is one such township.

It is divided a number of times by the Border.

The man who built up the mob suspected of having carried out a series of aggravated burglaries and raids on business premises over the past few years is a close associate of a well-known Provo who was once himself a tight associate of Thomas 'Slab' Murphy.

Calculated

The two families fell out after a row which resulted in the murder of one of the gang member's families.

Officers say the suspected gunman is a cold and calculated criminal who has shot at people indiscriminately before during robberies. He has never been so precise in his shot as he was when he aimed the barrel of his shotgun at Garda Donohoe's head in a killing that could only be described as an execution.

He was standing in the shadows of the Lordship Credit Union building while his gang, including an 18-year-old female getaway driver, blocked the exit with the car.

Seconds after Garda Donohoe got out of his vehicle to walk towards the dark coloured vehicle, the assassin raised and secured the shotgun at his shoulder, aimed and blasted the officer in the back of the head.

He then smashed the glass of the unmarked squad car and warned Donohoe's partner Garda Joe Ryan not to get out of the vehicle.

Meanwhile, other gang members rifled through a jeep that a terrified female staff member was due to travel in to lodge the Credit Union takings in a Dundalk bank.

They stole her handbag containing just €4,000 but left behind more cash in the glove compartment.

All were wearing balaclavas and they took off in the direction of the Dublin road at a furious speed.

The female, who Gardai are confident was driving the car, manoeuvred the vehicle through floods, under tight railway bridges and around tight bends, rarely dropping below 100mph. She is believed to be in a relationship with the gunman and an expert driver.

It is understood that the gang, who are holed up in safe-houses, are being closely monitored by surveillance experts and anyone harbouring them will also become the focus of the massive investigation.

The Irish League of Credit Unions has offered a €50,000 reward for information leading to the killers, an incentive that officers believe could help crack the veil of silence that traditionally hangs over Bandit Country.

Breaking news, Dublin real ira, dissident republicans, drug dealers, informers, sean connolly, eamon Kelly murder, an garda siochana

Breaking news, Dublin real ira, dissident republicans, drug dealers, informers, sean connolly, eamon Kelly murder, an garda siochana

Sean Connolly Tout?

THE MAN charged with the murder of criminal godfather Eamon Kelly is under 24-hour protection in jail after being accused of informing on his Real IRA 'comrades'. 34-yearold Sean Connolly is in an isolation cell on 'A' Landing in Portlaoise prison, after threats to his life from Real IRA inmates.

It had been expected that the mobster would be housed in the Real IRA landing at the jail when he arrived on Friday night, but he has been moved to a 'safe' landing over fears he could be murdered. His former dissident pals believe that he has given gardai detailed information about the murder of Kelly and has implicated five men in the plot.

Jail bosses decided that it was not safe for the father of two to mix with Real IRA prisoners and sources say that he did not object and was "happy" to go on protection.

Connolly was charged with murder at the Special Criminal Court after being arrested just minutes after Eamon Kelly was shot dead. The 65-year-old was shot three times in the chest with a handgun as he walked towards his home at Furry Park Road in Killester at about 4pm last Monday. As his accomplice slowed down in a Lexus car, the gunman jumped out of the car and opened fire.

Shortly after the shooting, gardai - who were patrolling the area - pounced on Connolly, who was near to a black Lexus which had been set alight. He spent four full days in Garda custody before being charged with the murder.

Real IRA chiefs were suspicious that he was charged considering that gardai had not found the gun used in the murder, and believed there was little to link him to the killing. They did not trust Connolly because of his links to a prominent Crumlin drugs gang and accused him of informing.

Their suspicions were heightened yesterday when gardai swooped to arrest six people in connection with the Kelly slaying.

Serious

One of those in custody is a convicted IRA member who has links to a prominent Sinn Fein elected representative.

A source said: "The Real IRA smelt a rat when Connolly was charged and it was decided that he must have spoken to gardai and named names, which is the ultimate no-no.

"Intelligence was received that there was a serious threat to his life so there is no way that he could have been allowed into the RIRA landing, not that they would have let him in.

"He's not allowed to mix with anyone. There are serious concerns for his safety even though there is no evidence he has given gardai any info.

"However, he is very unpopular in the organisation and was always shunned by Alan Ryan and the Dublin leadership."

Sean Connolly and other members of the Real IRA were seen openly snorting cocaine at the Swedish House Mafia gig, that cocaine was supplied by members of Brian Rattigan’s drug gang. Some members of the Real IRA were seriously compromised by their abuse of drugs and it is understood that Eamon Kelly, members of Continuity IRA and other drug dealers had inside information that helped them track down and use a Provo for hire hit-man to murder Alan Ryan.

It is understood that Sean Connolly had been given Eamon Kelly as a 'target' by the Real IRA's Northern leadership in a bid to exert control over the organisation's Dublin wing. The Real IRA has been gripped by internal dissent since its boss Ryan was gunned down in September.

Kelly is not believed to have had any significant involvement in Alan Ryan's murder, but instead was targeted to put manners on drug gangs and to encourage them to pay protection money.

Despite his public anti-drugs and anti-crime stance, Connolly struck up close links with members of mobster Brian Rattigan's gang since his release from prison last year. He was spotted with junior members of the gang at last summer's controversial Swedish House Mafia concert - including Rattigan's cousin Aaron.

Following Ryan's murder in September, RIRA bosses are said to have assigned 'targets' to individual cell leaders in Dublin. It is believed that Connolly was placed in charge of two units of the RIRA on Dublin's southside after Ryan's murder. Connolly was a friend of Ryan and they were both on the same wing of Portlaoise Prison during the last decade.

However, Connolly's dissident gang is believed to have operated independently of Ryan's. A source claimed that Connolly has become increasingly paranoid following Ryan's death, and there has always been a suspicion that he was working for the security services. Connolly had travelled north of the border on a number of occasions although he was allegedly wanted for serious crimes in the north. This pattern follows previous activity by INLA members during the 1986 feud, where certain individuals were able to travel north without arrest.

Innocent

Connolly's RIRA mob has been responsible for a wave of violence. This included the savage shooting of innocent banker Keith Deegan in Tallaght in April and the placing of a pipe bomb at the home of an elderly female relative of Eric 'Lucky' Wilson. Connolly is also believed to have threatened Lucky's brother, John. He was furious with the Wilson family as he blamed one of their close associates for killing his pal, Darren Cogan, in July 2011.

In April, Connolly's gang members shot Deegan (32), in the thigh and foot at his home in Citywest in a case of mistaken identity. Connolly's brother is also a well-known criminal with more than 30 convictions. In September, Ronan Connolly (28), was given a seven-month sentence for handling stolen property and burglary. The court heard he was caught in possession of a vice grips in Galway in June 2012 with the intent to use it in the course of a burglary.

In December, Sean Connolly was also arrested after two men were shot in Bluebell, Dublin. Sean Kearns (43), from Claddagh Road, Ballyfermot, was shot in the leg and Stephen Fitzpatrick (24), suffered injuries to the chest when gunmen broke into the house on Huband Road.

Detectives believe Mr Fitzpatrick was not a target and was shot by accident. Connolly was held for 48 hours before being released without charge.

Condemning drug dealers in public Snorting in Private

RIRA SUSPECT Nathan Kinsella (33), was kneecapped after cocaine was allegedly found in his apartment by an internal dissident discipline squad.

A stash of drugs - which included cocaine and 'downers' - were found in Kinsella's north inner-city apartment by the RIRA's internal security unit last month. The find has led to a major split within the group in Dublin, with a number of people effectively being kicked out of the organisation. However, some people who have attended house parties run by the RIRA had told of the use of class A drugs by Real IRA members and the use of under-age girls.

It is believed that Kinsella strenuously denied being the owner of the drugs, but he was ignored and was shot twice in the legs before being dumped in Ballyfermot on November 25. Kinsella was quizzed by gardai, but has claimed he did not know the shooter.

On Thursday, Kinsella's close pal Daryl Mulcahy (21), was refused entry on to the E3 landing in Portlaoise Prison by Real IRA members. Hours earlier, Mulcahy had been charged with membership of the RIRA and unlawful possession of a firearm. It is alleged that he was set up by a high ranking informer.

Nightmare

A source has said illegal drugs being found in the possession of a senior member is the RIRA's "worst nightmare". The terror group use their so-called anti-drugs stance to get support from vulnerable communities on both sides of the border - despite the fact they allow gangs to sell drugs as long as they pay a tax.

The discovery of the drugs in Kinsella's apartment has sent shockwaves through the RIRA and has led to the Northern leadership effectively taking control of the Dublin brigade. However, the reality is that the Real IRA in Dublin are nothing more than de-facto drug dealers.

Under Ryan's leadership, the RIRA in Dublin were largely independent and only had to send funds up to the North. Now senior dissidents from the North have taken control and are attempting to stamp out blatant criminality within the group, however, with Dublin gang members pocketing the majority of proceeds from criminal activity it is unlikely that trend will stop.

In September, Kinsella was charged with IRA membership in the Special Criminal Court as part of the investigation into paramilitary criminal activity at the funeral of Alan Ryan.

This week, SDU Detective Brian Power told the Special Criminal Court that he had arrested Mulcahy, outside Mountjoy Garda Station on the North Circular Road. He said he had arrested him for possession of a firearm under suspicious circumstances the previous day on Temple Street, Dublin, and for membership of the IRA on the same occasion.

Detective Power said he informed Mulcahy that the DPP had directed he be brought before the next sitting of the Special Criminal Court charged with the offences and that he made no reply to either charge.

Dessie O’Hare – Serial Killer back in the fray

THIS IS the friendship that spells the unofficial declaration of war for the Real IRA mob that whacked gangland godfather Eamon Kelly. The cocaine-smuggling pensioner had mentored some of Ireland's most evil drug lords over the years, but it's his association with the 'Border Fox', self-confessed serial killer Dessie O'Hare, which is striking dread into detectives leading the fight on organised crime.

The notorious INLA chief, who once admitted murdering 26 people, was regularly seen socialising in pubs in Clontarf with Kelly. Sean Connolly (34), of Bernard Curtis House, Bluebell, Dublin, was charged with Kelly's murder at a special sitting of the Special Criminal Court this weekend. He was also charged with IRA membership and possession of a weapon. Detectives hope the development will diffuse some of the tension in the city.

"Given who's involved all hell could still break loose," a source said.

Once Ireland's most wanted man, 56- year-old O'Hare was released in 2006 after serving 19 years of a 40-year sentence, following the Good Friday Agreement. The psycho was captured in a shootout in Kilkenny in 1987 after cutting off dentist John O'Grady's fingers with a hammer and chisel. He also infamously took a bolt cutter to another victim's ear before shooting him dead.

Bloodiest

Now crime fighters fear the tit-for-tat feud that saw Real IRA boss Alan Ryan taken out in September is about to escalate into the bloodiest underworld battle ever.

"Eamon Kelly and Dessie O'Hare became best buddies in Portlaoise," a Sunday World source said.

"Eamon was top of the 'food chain' in the prison and this was at a time when you had the remnants of Martin Cahill's gang, people like Harry Melia, serving alongside John Gilligan's gang, and Christy 'Bronco' Dunne."

The rogues' gallery were behind some of the most notorious crimes ever committed in the State: Martin Cahill's gang of armed robbers planted the car bomb that caused devastating injuries to the founder of the forensic science lab, Dr Jim Donovan, while druglord John Gilligan was tried and acquitted of the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin. And Christy Dunne was the notorious brother of hated kingpin Larry Dunne, who flooded Dublin with heroin in the seventies and early eighties.

"Eamon Kelly would have got on with all of them, but also with the younger lads who were confrontational. He was also the only one who could get through to Dessie," said our source.

Father-of-nine Kelly became best mates with INLA headcase O'Hare through his involvement with Saor Eire in the 1970s. The organisation wanted to spark a socialist revolution funded by armed bank robberies, shooting garda Richard Fallon dead in cold blood as he intervened in a bank robbery on Dublin's Arran Quay in 1970.

"Kelly was in Saor Eire in the seventies," our source said.

"Himself and Dessie would go for long walks in the yard and God only knows what they were plotting."

Detectives fear O'Hare, who has grown increasingly paranoid in recent years, will pull out all stops to avenge Kelly's death. O'Hare was the victim of a suspected beating by dissident republicans near Kelly's home last year. He told medics in Dublin's Mater Hospital that he'd been involved in a hit and run.

Four years ago his brother Paddy took his own life after Dessie invested in his business and it lost everything in the property crash. Kelly had previously survived an assassination attempt two years ago when a pistol pointed at his temple jammed. Now he's gone, detectives fear O'Hare will go to whatever lengths necessary to avenge his old pal

Eamon Kelly murder, alan ryan murder, Dublin real ira, drug dealers Dublin, sean connolly charged, dissident republicans, crime, an garda siochana

Eamon Kelly murder, alan ryan murder, Dublin real ira, drug dealers Dublin, sean connolly charged, dissident republicans, crime, an garda siochana

Eamon Kelly murder charge: RIRA chief Sean Connolly has been charged with the murder of godfather Eamon Kelly.

Connolly (32), from Bernard Curtis House in Bluebell, was arrested close to the scene of Kelly's murder in Clontarf on Tuesday afternoon.

The tattooed thug has a long history of involvement in dissident activity and was a close pal of slain RIRA boss Alan Ryan.

Connolly is believed to head up an RIRA unit based in the south inner city and linked to a number of shootings and pipe bomb attacks.

Eamon Kelly had witnessed the transformation of the underworld – and became a paid consultant to other criminals – before his murder this week

Eamon Kelly murder how: A LONE hitman pumped three bullets into mob boss Eamon Kelly bringing an end to his long criminal career that stretched over four decades.

The convicted drug dealer and armed robber was a sinister influence on Ireland's underworld mentoring young hoods in the ways of professional crime.

He was the first major cocaine smuggler to be caught red-handed in Ireland and later went on to help plan and execute terrifying Tiger-kidnap robberies.

One of those young hoods he took under his wing was Finglas crime boos Eamon 'The Don' Dunne.

Eamon Kelly, the 65-year-old crime boss and father of nine who was shot dead on Tuesday, lived through changes in the criminal landscape that he couldn’t have imagined as a teenager.

He had come up in the era when hold-up-style bank robberies were common and gun murders infrequent. He survived into the cocaine-fuelled modern era, in which the criminal fraternity has morphed into a macho subculture where guns are commonplace and people are killed if they are even suspected of having wronged their fellow gang members.

Kelly, who had once worked as a labourer, began his crime career in the 1960s. His earliest convictions were for housebreaking and shopbreaking.

After initial brushes with the law he began to project an image of an upwardly mobile young businessman, eager to make his way in legitimate business. He became involved, with his brother Matt Kelly, in the Kelly’s Carpetdrome business, though it collapsed with huge debts in 1981.

At this time, republican bank robberies across the State were regular occurrences, and a heroin “epidemic” was sweeping Dublin, making certain crime families rich. But by the mid 1980s, with his carpet business wound up, as well as a property business he had been involved in, Eamon Kelly had joined his peers in carrying out major cash robberies.

At that time, still in his mid to late 30s, Kelly became known as a man who schooled and advised others engaged in major robberies. One of them was Gerry Hutch, who, like Kelly, was originally from Dublin’s north inner city. Hutch would go on to settle a multimillion-euro case with the Criminal Assets Bureau, which presented evidence in court claiming that he was linked to some of the biggest armed robberies in the State in the 1990s; two of those crimes netted almost £4 million.

Like Kelly, Hutch left the poor inner city to settle in a middle-class neighbourhood. He currently lives in Clontarf, less than a kilometre from the home outside which Kelly was shot this week in Killester.

Kelly was associating with figures in the Official IRA and Provisional IRA in the early 1980s and was jailed after stabbing a man in a row outside the Workers’ Party’s social club on Gardiner Street in Dublin’s north inner city.

Serious criminal

When he came out of prison in the mid 1980s, Kelly, now a serious criminal with a bodyguard, once again stepped back into a crime scene dominated by IRA-fundraising bank robberies. By then, though, nonparamilitary gangs were finding their feet, despite the stifling influence of the Provisional IRA.

John Gilligan was specialising in robbing factories. Martin Cahill – “the General” – and his gang were proving successful at robbery-based enterprises, and the families that were among the first to corner the Dublin drugs market were continuing with their trade. Christy Griffin, Rossi Walsh (both now serving long sentences for child rape) also worked with these criminals.

As the recession of the 1980s eased and yuppie culture reached Irish shores, Kelly decided to move into the fledgling cocaine market. His plans to develop an almost direct cocaine route from Colombia to Ireland via Miami, using a Cuban female drugs mule, were new to Ireland.

They were met by some equally pioneering Garda tactics. The force modified a van into a surveillance vehicle and used it to uncover Kelly’s plan. When he went to Jurys Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin, in September 1992 to collect £500,000 in smuggled cocaine, he was arrested and later jailed for 14 years.

The details of the case seem almost quaint when set against the hauls of up to €10 million captured in recent years. The technology now at the Garda’s disposal lets gardaí eavesdrop on mobile-phone calls and read text messages without needing physical access to the phones they are monitoring.

The man who led the 1992 investigation was Martin Callinan, then a detective sergeant and now the Garda Commissioner.The links to Cuba and Colombia set out in court were very exotic in the Dublin of the early 1990s, and the trial was heavily covered in the newspapers.

When Kelly emerged from jail for this crime, just over a decade ago, the landscape had changed significantly. The Provisional IRA now had little influence, and the economic boom had fuelled a huge drugs trade.

Members of John Gilligan’s gang had shot dead the journalist Veronica Guerin, resulting in the jailing of key members, the dismantling of the gang’s cannabis network and the setting up of the Criminal Assets Bureau.

The drugs market was now nationwide, and new gangs of young men in parts of Limerick and Cork had cornered much of the regional market.

In Dublin, Brian Rattigan and his enemies were beginning their bloody feud in the suburbs of Crumlin and Drimnagh, and Shane Coates and the Sugg and Glennon brothers – all of whom have since been shot dead – had become the group of Blanchardstown drug dealers and killers known as the Westies.

In Finglas, in north Dublin, Martin Marlo Hyland was running the biggest drugs gang in the State and the Bradley brothers, Alan and Wayne, were emerging as prolific armed robbers.

Scale of death

The Crumlin and Drimnagh gangs, Hyland’s group, the Westies and the Keane-Collopy and rival McCarthy Dundon gangs in Limerick have all engaged in feuds in which dozens have died – a scale of death unheard of before Kelly was jailed for cocaine offences.

So Kelly – robber, drug dealer, forger and gang mentor – became a sort of paid consultant to many of the new breed in Dublin. Kelly was especially close to Eamon Dunne, who took over the large drugs and robbery gang in Finglas after Marlo Hyland’s murder and who himself would be shot dead in April 2010.

In the end it was that consultancy work that saw Kelly shot dead this week. When the Real IRA in Dublin began trying to extort money from some of the Dublin gangs, a number of the rival groups joined forces to fight off the well-structured dissidents.

The coalition led to the murder of Alan Ryan in September. The Real IRA believed Kelly was central to organising that killing and was also frustrated that Kelly had himself refused to pay up when extortion demands were made of him.

They had tried to kill him two years ago outside his house on Furry Park Road in Killester, north Dublin, but the gun jammed and the gunman ran off.

But with Kelly very much under suspicion for aiding the killers of Alan Ryan, he once again rose to the top of Real IRA’s list of targets. After more than four decades in the thick of organised crime, he was shot dead outside his Dublin home on Tuesday afternoon.