A History Of Gangland Violence In Dublin

Illegal drug use became widespread in Dublin during the 1970s and 1980s, laying the foundations for Ireland’s current problem with organised crime. Forty years later, the vicious feud between two rival Dublin drug gangs has gangland violence at the forefront of the public consciousness. The conflict, which began in 2015, has so far killed ten people.
The bitter rivalry currently garnering media attention involves the gangs of two of Ireland’s biggest drug dealers, Christy Kinahan and Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch. Hutch was given the nickname ‘The Monk’ by Veronica Guerin, the Irish investigative journalist murdered in 1996 by associates of prominent Dublin drug trafficker John Gilligan. Her murder is seen as a turning point in Irish gang crime.
Criminal gangs certainly existed before this time – indeed, Gilligan had been linked to Martin ‘The General’ Cahill, one of Ireland’s most notorious criminals throughout the 1970s to 90s. But the Gardaí (Irish police) have told The Independent newspaper that they believe John Gilligan to have been the father of modern organised crime in Ireland.
More formalised drug gangs followed, leading to competition and feuding. A man called Martin Hyland had been called ‘the dominant figure in organised crime in North Dublin’ from the late 1990s until his murder in 2006. Like Martin Cahill, he is believed to have been killed by his own gang. Before his death, Hyland supplied guns to factions in the Crumlin–Drimnagh feud, caused by a split in 2000 among the main suppliers of drugs on Dublin’s south side into two rival groups. Sixteen people died in the feud which lasted until 2012, both in Ireland and in Spain, from where several Irish drug bosses run their businesses.