Gary Hutch was the first to get the bullet-backed Irish lullaby.
Recommended Videos
The 34-year-old Dublin mobster was clipped at his Marbella, Spain apartment complex on Sept. 24, 2015. That kicked off an internecine underworld in Ireland that has left at least 20 people dead across multiple jurisdictions.
In the New World, of course, the Irish are no longer the big players they were in gangland. Only Montreal’s West End Gang remains.
But Irish mobsters are once again ascendant, not only in the Emerald Isle but across the planet, striking up strategic alliances with some of the most notorious crime syndicates known to man.
In a throwback to a long-ago criminal milieu in North America, you get nicknames like The Monk, The Penguin and others.
On the periphery of all this is MMA star Conor McGregor, who was recently found liable for sex assault following an incident at a Dublin hotel. McGregor is tight with the crime clan responsible for icing Gary Hutch.
The fighter is linked to the hyper-violent Kinahan cartel via his sister Aoife who is currently dating convicted drug trafficker and money launderer Graham “The Wig” Whelan.
The Kinahans crime empire is estimated to be worth $1 billion but the walls are closing in.
***
Sitting atop the pyramid is 47-year-old Daniel Kinahan. Gary Hutch had been his right-hand man until 2014 when suspicions began percolating that he was a rat following a big dope bust in the United Kingdom.
Former boxing promoter Kinahan (he repped Tyson Fury) fell in with his father Christy Kinahan’s crime syndicate in the late 1990s.
For years, the Kinahans and Hutch Gang, led by Gerry “The Monk” Hutch, cooperated.
Of course, that was until Gary Hutch was rubbed out.
What followed was a bloody underworld settling of accounts leaving members on both sides dead in the gutter in Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Spain and Holland.
There have been additional beatings, stabbings, shootings, arson and bombings. The Kinahan clan has also been linked to the IRA, Hells Angels and the Mexican cartels, among others.
Drug and weapons trafficking are their big earners.
While Hutch Gang members are also prominent players in the above two rackets, Gerry Hutch has allegedly pulled off some of Europe’s most spectacular bank and jewelry heists and is something of a criminal genius.
***
The bitter battle for control of the Irish rackets exploded across the international media on Feb. 5, 2016.
Triggermen armed with AK-47s and disguised as a police emergency response unit, attacked the weigh-in for the WBO European Lightweight title fight between Jamie Kavanagh and Antonio João Bento at Dubin’s Regency Hotel.
Daniel Kinahan was the intended target but instead, family flunky and arch-criminal in his own right, David Byrne, 34, was permanently taken off the board. Two others were injured.
The bloodshed has eased but the Kinahans are on the lam, reportedly hiding out in the desert gangster’s paradise of Dubai. In 2022, the US Department of State announced multi-million dollar financial rewards for information leading to their capture.
***
Meanwhile, The Monk wants his city back. He is now running as an independent candidate in Dublin. He is on bail for money laundering charges. In 2023, he was found not guilty of the notorious Regent Hotel rubout.
My friend, the Irish Sunday World‘s ace crime reporter, Nicola Tallant has followed the twisting, turning machinations of the two crime cartels for years. She believes Gerry Hutch is sincere about a life in politics.
“He’s definitely very connected and, definitely, there’s no doubt in my mind he’s very genuine about his love for the north inner city and his connection to it,” Tallant told NewsTalk this week.
“I personally think it’s about taking back his city. When the Kinahan and Hutch feud kicked off, the Kinahans tried to take that from him and I think he’s back to take it back.”
***
As for Daniel Kinahan, Tallant describes him as “manipulative” and “narcissistic beyond belief.”
“This ego and inability to stay in the background is his downfall. It’s causing him big problems,” she said, adding Kinahan is something of a nepo-gangster.
“He did not have to fight his way up to being a leader, he was handed it by his father, so he is seen by some as a spoiled brat who was silver-spooned into the position he’s in.”
Another rap on the underworld scion is that “he’s too afraid to do anything himself” and his “biggest fear” is going to prison.
***
The walls appear to be closing in the Kinahans in their Dubai redoubt. Top-tier member Sean McGovern was arrested there in connection with the 2016 murder of a friend of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch.
UAE authorities grabbed McGovern on an Interpol Red Notice and European Arrest Warrant.
He was wanted for the shooting death of Noel Kirwan, 62. What role McGovern allegedly played was not clear but the victim was hit eight times in the head, chest and arms outside his Dublin home.
Kirwan had no criminal connection to either side of the bloody battle.
But that’s the luck of the Irish.