Come Here To Me!

Recent gangland feuds in Dublin and other Irish cities have made newspaper headlines worldwide. The Hutch-Kinahan conflict resulted in the deaths of c. 19 people alone between 2015 and 2018. Many see the starting point of modern gangland carnage as the shooting dead of crime boss Martin Cahill (‘The General’) by the Provisional IRA in 1994 and the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin by criminals two years later. The early 1990s did certainly mark the start of a new bloody chapter. Over the four years between 1991-94, there was 11 gangland murders altogether in Ireland but the first six months of 1995 saw seven killings alone. The numbers rose exponentially in the 2000s and 2010s as criminals became more ruthless and more liable to murder rivals in tit-for-tat killings.

• police officers, security guards or civilians killed by criminals during robberies or other incidents
• victims of internal feuds or suspected informers killed by Republican paramilitaries

It includes only individuals who were killed by criminals or suspected criminals. They were for the most part premeditated ‘hits’ and firearms were used in all but one of the murders. If you are aware of any other cases, please email me or leave a comment.

I have identified 13 such murders in Dublin the 1978-89 period. The youngest victim was 15 and the oldest 47. The attacks took place on both sides of the River Liffey in the inner city and Dublin suburbs in the south (Crumlin), west (Blanchardstown) and north (Ballymun, Killester, Cabra).

19 March 1978 – Christopher McAuley (Christy McAuley)

Christy McAuley, of 38 Millbrook Road, Kilbarrack, was arrested in 1976 and charged with conspiring with another person to import arms but he was not convicted of the offence. The following year he was fined for possession of cannabis and cocaine. Police also linked him to a number of armed robberies in the city.

On the night of 19 March 1978, Christy McAuley (25) met another criminal Eamon Saurin (36) in the Celebrity Club night spot on Upper Abbey Street. McAuley gave Saurin and his friend Laurence Maguire (Clicky) a lift home. At the junction of Craigford Avenue and Killester Avenue, Saurin asked that the car be pulled over. He drew a small .32 automatic pistol and shot McAuley twice in the head. McAuley somehow managed to open the door and stagger out onto the road. Saurin followed and fired two more shots. The paranoid Saurin had mistakenly thought that McAuley (who was actually gay) had slept with his girlfriend while he had been on the run. The authorities caught up with Saurin in July 1981 and he was charged with the murder of McAuley. The chief prosecution witness Laurence Maguire (Clicky) refused to give evidence and was imprisoned for a month for contempt. Saurin’s trial was rescheduled but Maguire failed to turn up and the case subsequently collapsed.

Saurin was described in the book ‘Smack’ (1985) by Sean Flynn and Padraig Yeates as a “well-known robber” originally from Liberty House off Sean MacDermott Street. The family moved out to 8 Glencorp Road, Whitehall and the teenage Saurin picked up his first conviction in 1964. He was based at 25 Clanree Road, Donnycarney in the mid 1970s. Saurin was described in ‘Badfellas’ (2011) by Paul McWilliams as “one of the first criminals credited with smuggling commercial shipments of cannabis and heroin from Amsterdam into Ireland in the late 1970s”. While he got away with the McAuley murder, Saurin was immediately extradited to England where he was jailed for life in 1983 for the murder of his former neighbour Kenneth Adams (32) in Birmingham on 6 Nov. 1972.

In Sep. 1981, Christy McAuley’s brother Anthony was injured in a shooting in O’Neill’s pub, Summerhill Parade. On 19 Sep, two masked gunmen – armed with a .32 automatic pistol and a sawn-off shotgun- entered the premises looking for one or two specific people. In the incident, a total of four men were wounded – Anthony McAuley, Andrew Corbally, Nicholas Wynne and Kevin Brennan. It’s unclear as to who the original targets were but police told the Irish Press (18 Sep. 1981) that it was linked to a gangland feud.

25 April 1979 – Basil English

Basil English, of 95 Harmonstown Road, Artane had a long criminal rap-sheet history going back to 1964. On the night of 25 April 1979, he was shot through the head at point-blank range inside the doorway of an eight-story flat in a Ballymun tower block addressed 184 Sillogue Road. English (33) was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. The Evening Herald (26 April 1979) described it as a “gangland slaying” and reported that the police believed the murder was connected to an “internal gangland feud”.

The main suspect, Thomas Tyrell (21) (aka Tommy Tyrell), of 47 Ribh Road, Artane, barricaded himself into a Ballymun flat for five days and threatened to kill himself before he eventually surrendered to the Gardaí. It transpired that Tyrell was dating English’s ex. girlfriend so there might have been a jealousy/personal aspect to the killing. Both men were supposed to have been heavily intoxicated on the night in question. Tyrell was sentenced to three years imprisonment for possession of a .32 revolver and ammunition but the manslaughter charge sentencing was postponed to July 1980 following psychiatric treatment and evaluation.

Tyrell was released on 13 Jan. 1982 after serving two years for the manslaughter of Basil English. He was involved in another shooting incident just weeks after he was let out of prison. On 25 Feb. 1982, Tyrell shot and wounded Edward Charles McGuinness with a double-barreled shotgun at the doorway of McGuinness’ flat at 324 Sillogue Road, Ballymun. Tyrell, who had 25 previous convictions, pleaded guilty to the charge of malicious wounding and was sentenced to four years imprisonment.

18 Oct. 1979 – Christopher Shannon (Christy Shannon)

Christy Shannon was originally from Lower Dorset Street in the North Inner City. In the 1970s, he lived with his wife Breda and seven children at 3 Shangan Gardens, Ballymun.

In Sep. 1977, Mrs. Breda Shannon (38) went missing and the strange case was covered in the national press. The Irish Independent (27 Sep. 1977) stated that she had “not been seen since she discharged” herself from the Cuan Mhuire rehabilitation centre for recovering alcoholics in Athy, Co. Kildare on 9 Sep. In the Evening Herald (20 Sep. 1977), her husband Christy Shannon “appealed” to his wife to “return home and look after the children”. Nothing further was reported in the press over the next two years.

On 18 Oct. 1979, the body of Christy Shannon (43) was found by police in a stolen Ford Granada car in a laneway behind the Nally Stand, Croke Park. He had been shot twice in the face and neck at point-blank range with a shotgun by somebody in the driver’s seat. Shannon had previous convictions for burglary and larceny. The Evening Herald (22 Oct. 1979) noted that the police were searching the “homes and haunts of known Dublin criminals” to question about the murder.

The Irish Independent (03 Nov. 1979) published a photograph of Mrs. Breda Shannon under the heading: “‘Come home’ plea to Croke Park murder wife”. The piece claimed that Mrs. Shannon “disappeared from her home” in Ballymun and “has not been seen since”. The Cuan Mhuire rehabilitation centre was not mentioned. The police believed that she “may still be in the country but it is thought she may be unaware that her husband is dead”. The Irish Press (04 Nov. 1979) claimed that the police believed that she “might have gone to England”.

But then the Evening Herald (12 Dec. 1979) included a one line buried in a larger piece about the murder indicating that “Mrs Shannon’s wife was contacted in London, but she was not able to shed any light on her husband’s activities or associates”. So it appears that Breda Shannon left her husband and children in Dublin in 1977 and was found by police in London two years later but there doesn’t seem to be any other evidence besides that one short mention.

It was reported in the Irish Examiner (27 Jan. 1981) that the Gardaí had interviewed between 400 and 500 people in relation to the Christy Shannon murder case and had considered up to 30 people as possible subjects. The police arrested Laurence Cummins (Larry Cummins) (32) of Summerhill Parade and charged him with the murder. Cummins had multiple convictions going back to 1961. The police found a set of keys in Cummins’ home which belonged to the Ford Granada car in which Christy Shannon’s body had been found.

In court, Cummins denied that he was responsible but admitted that he had lent his shotgun and a car to a criminal associate named Frank Hughes. The Irish Independent (20 July 1982) stated:

The accused said that his friend Frank Hughes remarked that Shannon was dangerous and there was only one way to finish him and “to finish him right”. Cummins said that on the day Christy Shannon was killed he was in the pub about 9.30pm when Frank Hughes came in (and) said he had done the message, and the accused knew Christy Shannon had been killed.

The Irish Independent (22 July 1982) reported that Cummins had told police that Christy Shannon had been charged for breaking up a taxi owned by the father of Frank Hughes. The jury “failed to reach a verdict” in the first trial in Jan. 1981 and Cummins was found ‘not guilty’ and acquitted of the murder in a second trial in July 1982. It is unclear whether Frank Hughes was arrested.

Cummins served many prison sentences in the 1980s and 1990s and had convictions for drug dealing, armed robbery, possession of firearms, assault and receiving stolen goods. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in July 2006 for his role in the robbery and shooting of the publican Charlie Chawke at the Goat Grill pub in Goatstown in 2003. Cummins died after a long illness in 2009 while serving his sentence in Mountjoy Prison.

17 Sep. 1980 – John Kelly (Jackie Kelly)

Jackie Kelly, of 9 St Andrew’s Court off Fenian Street in Dublin’s South Inner City, was married and had a two-year-old son. He had worked for about eight years as a postman in the Donnybrook area. He started a position as a telephone operator for the Irish Taxi Owners Co-Op in the summer of 1980. On the night of 17 Sep. 1980, Kelly (24) was watching a UEFA cup match between Polish club Widzew Łódź and Manchester United on the television in Grace’s pub at the corner of Townsend Street and Shaw Street near Pearse Street. There were about 15 other customers in the bar. At around 10.50pm, a man in a motorcycle helmet walked into the premises and fired a number of shots at Kelly who was sitting with two friends at a lounge window. The gunman left the bar but immediately returned and shot Kelly again.

The assassin’s mask, motorcycle helmet, jacket and a sawn-off shotgun (not used in the attack) was found in a rubbish chute in nearby Markievicz House. The .32 pistol used in the murder was later discovered in a county council dump in Ballyogan near Dundrum.

Kelly, who was shot a total of five times, was interviewed by police in his hospital bed but died of his injuries ten days later on 27 Sep. 1980 in St. Vincent’s Hospital.

Kelly’s widow described her husband as a “quiet family man” who “played football” but “devoted most of his spare time to his family”. He had no known connections to organised crime and Gardaí were unable to find an apparent motive for the killing.

Grace’s pub was destroyed in a suspicious fire in Nov. 1983. Another pub on the street, The Countess, had burnt to the ground earlier that same year. A local criminal gang engaged in protection rackets were suspected.

The Irish Press (18 April 1993) described the Kelly murder as an “underworld killing” and stated that the police were “convinced a notorious south city gang leader personally carried out the killing as a favour for a friend”. Nobody was ever convicted of the murder.

26 May 1982 – Gerard Morgan

Gerard Morgan (15) was shot dead as he came to the front door of his family home at 22 Lismore Road, Crumlin on 26 May 1982. It is believed that his older brother Alan Morgan (17) was the intended target. Alan had allegedly fallen out with a criminal gang over the missing proceeds of a bank robbery in Drumcondra in Feb. 1982. There had been a previous gun attack on the Morgan home on 9 March 1982 when five shots were fired.

Patrick Conroy was sentenced in 1983 to seven years in jail for being an accessory to murder by providing shelter to the killer. Michael McDonnell, of 6 Dermot O’Dwyer House, Hardwicke Street, was arrested for the murder but the state dropped the charge and he was not convicted.

28 Dec. 1982 – Anthony Hopkins (Tony/Tolly Hopkins)

Tony Hopkins (20) of 58 George’s Place, Dorset Street was involved in a clash between rival gangs in the Jetfoil pub on the North Wall quay on 28 Dec. 1982. Later that night, Hopkins and a dozen other men travelled in two cars to a block of flats at St. Bridget’s Gardens, Sheriff Street. A shotgun was discharged at the men through a glass panel from one of the flats and Hopkins was hit in the face. He died of his injuries on 31 Dec. 1982. His mother passed away, just a few weeks later, on 27 Jan. 1983.

Michael Dooner (20) of 43 Gardini Lein (Lein Gardens), Raheny was arrested after the incident. He admitted supplying the shotgun that was used in the killing but not firing the fatal shot. At the Central Criminal Court, he was sentenced to three years for manslaughter. At the time of the sentencing in 1984, he was already serving a four-year sentence for aggravated burglary and other offences.

10 April 1983 – Gerard Hourigan (Gerry Hourigan)

Gerry Hourigan (25), of Balbutcher Lane, Ballymun, was married with one child. He was described in the books ‘Smack’ and ‘Badfellas’ as a small-time hash dealer who worked under the command of local criminal Myler Brogan. Hourigan, it is said, used local teenagers to distribute Brogan’s drugs from a social club in the basement of the flats of Joseph Plunkett Tower. Brogan’s gangland partners, according to ‘Smack’ and ‘Badfellas’, were two serious players from Swords with former Irish republican paramilitary links.

In Jan. 1983, Myler was arrested in France as part of a drugs investigation. Hourigan saw his boss’s sudden absence as an opportunity and began to source his own hash which he distributed in the local area on a bigger scale. Myler returned to Dublin a few months later and ‘sacked’ Hourigan for overstepping the boundaries. Hourigan made overtures to the Dunne crime family but was fobbed off. They viewed him as nothing but a small-time player. Hourigan wasn’t happy with the new situation he found himself in. He and his crew broke into Myler’s parents home in North Strand looking for Myler’s drug money stash. On 7 April 1983, Hourigan and an accomplice stole Myler’s BMW car outside The Penthouse pub, Ballymun and rammed it into a wall. It was then reported that Hourigan and an associate, both armed, had been spotted in Swords asking about Myler’s business partners who lived in the area. By this stage, Hourigan had clearly overstepped the mark.

On 9 April 1983, Hourigan went on a city centre pub crawl with his brother John and two friends visiting The Metro, Parnell Street and Bo Derrol’s, Smithfield. They left at about 11.45pm and drove back to Ballymun. As they approached the entrance to the social club in B7, the basement of Plunkett tower, a motorbike pulled up and its armed passenger jumped off. The hitman drew his gun and fired at Hourigan who fled for cover in the nearby basement. The gunman pursued and shot Hourigan dead in front of several others in the club. No one was ever charged in relation to the killing.

14 June 1983 – Daniel McOwen (Danny McOwen)

Danny McOwen was originally from Rory O’Connor House, Hardwicke Street flats in the North Inner City. In Sep. 1972, he was sentenced to two years imprisonment for possession of explosives and several rounds of ammunition. A member of the armed republican group Saor Éire, he was one of eight prisoners in Portlaoise who signed a statement severing their connections with the organisation in 1973 due to the activity of “undesirable elements” within the movement.

Following his release, McOwen was associated with the INLA in the mid to late 1970s. In April 1978, he was arrested with Thomas Savage of 1 St. Cronan’s Close, Swords and charged with stealing a car from a garage in Newbridge, Co. Kildare and being in possession of a wire-cutter. He was sentenced to three years in Dec. 1980 and was released in early 1983.

Shortly after his release from jail according to the Irish Press (15 June 1983), he bought a £50,000 redbrick bungalow in the village of Cloghertown, Clonalvy, Ashbourne, Co. Meath where he lived with his wife and two sons.

McOwen recruited a number of old associates and new contacts into a new criminal grouping nicknamed the ‘Gang of Six’ and they made plans to become big players in the world of organised crime. It is detailed in ‘Smack’ and ‘Badfellas’ that McOwen was centrally involved in a plan rob a major cash consignment on the Swords Road en route from Belfast to the Central Bank, Dublin in June 1983. The plan was put into motion but aborted on the day after the gang found out that the cash van had a large Irish Army escort.

Although he lived on the Dublin-Meath border, McOwen still made the weekly journey into his old neighbourhood to pick up his dole money. On 14 June 1983, McOwen (31) was shot four times as he left the Labour Exchange at North Cumberland Street off Parnell Street. A number of people were questioned but nobody was convicted.

26 Dec. 1983 – Edward Hayden (Eddie Hayden)

Eddie Hayden in the early 1970 had been a light middleweight champion boxer and had fought several times for Ireland. His nephew was famed boxer Bernard Dunne.

By the early 1980s Hayden had turned to crime and was described in ‘Smack’ as a “mid ranking heroin pusher”. In Oct. 1983, he had been acquitted on charges of heroin possession. Hayden was a married father of three but lived alone at 5 Sherrard Court, Portland Place off Dorset Street. On 26 Dec. 1983, Hayden (34) was shot dead by a lone gunman at about 11.40pm outside a flat on Dunne Street, Ballybough. It was reported that the flat belonged to a former girlfriend but it’s unclear whether the murder had a personal dimension. A number of people were arrested but no convictions were made.

An acknowledgement from his family in the Evening Herald (18 Feb. 1984) thanked the sympathy and support from Arbour Hill Boxing Club and all of Hayden’s friends in the following pubs: Madigan’s, Talbot Street; Lloyd’s, Amiens Street; Scanlon’s, Parnell Street and Carr’s, Stoneybatter.

late March 1986 – Patrick Garland (38)

Patrick Garland was a small-time criminal originally from Captains Road, Crumlin. He was described as a master hand at forging cheques and had a number of convictions for fraud. He also served terms of imprisonment for “acting under false pretences” and for an assault on his ex. wife according to the Sunday World (04 Oct. 1987).

On 28 Sep. 1987, his badly deposed body was found lying down in a bog about 40 yards from the Kilakee Road on the Featherbed Mountain in the Dublin Mountains. The police found his remains while searching for the £10m Beit paintings stolen by Martin Cahill (‘The General) from Sir Alfred Beit in Russborough House, County Wicklow. Garland had been shot in the back with a shotgun from a range of under seven yards and the Evening Herald (01 Oct. 1987) stated early with some certainty that he had fallen “foul of Dublin’s underworld”.

Garland had been missing for 18 months. His friends last reported seeing him on Holy Thursday, 27 March 1986 when he had allegedly won £800 backing horses. Nobody formally reported him missing and there were rumours that he had moved to Spain or England. A warrant out for his arrest was issued in January 1987 after he had failed to appear at Dublin District Court on a fraud charge.

Garland had been married but had split up from his wife, with whom he had two children, around 1973. He had been living since then between houses in Tallaght and the North Inner City. His address at the time of his death was a guesthouse at 69 Lower Gardiner Street. Garland was known to drink in pubs in the Parnell Street and Lower Gardiner Street areas.

Speculation mounted that Garland had been killed after he had stolen money from a gang he worked with cashing forging cheques. However the “strongest theory”, according to the Sunday Tribune (04 Oct. 1987), was that Garland was killed because of his romantic involvement with the “estranged wife of an established criminal in the Dublin underworld”.

It was reported in the media that Garland had a long relationship with a married woman who lived with her family in Tallaght. She had been a childhood sweetheart of Garland in Crumlin. After Garland’s death, the woman’s husband told the Sunday World that he did beat up Garland on one occasion but had nothing to do with his murder. Although the Sunday Tribune described him as an “established criminal”, his name was not linked to any criminal activity in the newspaper archives.

The fallout of this affair certainly resulted in some serious and violent repercussions. The Sunday Tribune (04 Oct. 1987) reported that Garland had been “badly beaten up at least two occasions before he went missing”. In about Feb. 1986, the woman was attacked in her home by three masked men. This was not long after Garland disappeared. She left Tallaght suddenly around September 1987 and took her two children to England according to the Irish Press (20 Oct. 1987). A matter of weeks before Garland’s body was discovered.

Almost a year after the story first broke, the Irish Press (02 Dec. 1987) stated that the police now were satisfied that Garland was killed for financial and not for personal reasons. They said “he had a large amount of money” and had “cashed thousands of pounds in cheques in the last two months of his life”. The last mention in the newspapers was the Irish Press (14 April 1988) who stated that Gardai believed “robbery was the most likely motive” for the “shotgun murder of petty criminal Patrick Garland”. But after an eight-month investigation, they were “no closer” to finding the killer. No one has ever been charged.

9 Aug. 1986 – Bartholomew Murray (Barney Murray) (24)

In the early morning of 9 April 1986, a group of young men were drinking cider beside a grotto in a playground at Ventry Park in Cabra. Four of the youths decided to steal a motorbike from outside a flat in the nearby Ratoath Estate which they subsequently dumped in a field.

The motorbike belonged to Eamon Foy (20) who was visiting friends in Cabra. Foy jumped into a car with three of his friends (Gary R., Tony K. and Stephen D.) and drove down to the playground to confront the gang who they expected were involved. Foy was a licensed owner of a shotgun and took it with him for ‘protection’.

At the playground, they encountered a group of 12-13 local youths beside a van shop. The crowd included the four who had taken the motorbike. Words were exchanged and the group taunted Foy about the theft. He pointed the shotgun out the window and nearly lost the weapon when two of the gang got a hold of it but he wrestled it back from them. There were threats from the gang that they’d burn Foy’s friends out of their flat according to the Evening Herald (19 Nov. 1987)

Foy stepped out of the car as stones and bottles smashed to the ground around him. It was reported in the Irish Press (26 Nov. 1987) that Foy claimed he heard shouts of “Get him, get him! He’s on his own”. He fired two shots through the railings into the playground. Barney Murray (24), of 35 Ventry Road, Cabra, had peered out from behind a pillar and was hit in the face. He was hit a second time in the buttock. Derek Redmond (20s), also of Ventry Park, was wounded by shotgun pellets in the arm and legs. Both were brought to hospital where Murray died of shock and blood loss. Murray had not been involved in the theft of the motorbike but was in the company of the larger gang of youths who had been confronted about the theft.

Eamon Foy (20), a printer of Mellowes Avenue, Finglas, was arrested immediately afterwards. At his trial in December 1987, he was found ‘not guilty’ of murder by a jury but was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to three years imprisonment. A small plaque at the playground marks the death of Barney Murray. This killing was not linked to organised crime but two rival groups of young men.

30 June 1987 – Mel Cox

Mexl Cox (47), originally from Elphin, Roscommon, was a physically formidable figure standing over six feet tall and weighing over 16 stone (101kg). A father of three young children, he moved into 71 Corduff Grove, Blanchardstown about 1986. Cox worked as a scrap dealer with a business premises in Store Street. Known as a fierce street fighter and local character, the Sunday Tribune (12 July 1987) reported that he was “reputed to have terrorised a neighbour out of a house he was living in North Great George’s Street by putting a dead cat in the man’s bed … another time he began cutting up a horse killed by a truck in Tallaght, in the middle of the street, to feed his dogs”.

On 20 June 1987 or thereabouts, he was involved in a brawl in a pub in Summerhill Parade. Depending on the version of the story, he broke the jaw of a local criminal or the jaw of a local criminal’s female relative. Ten days later, on 30 June 1987, an unmasked man approached and calmly shot Cox three times in the head as he worked in the back garden of his home in Blanchardstown. His common-law wife saw the shooting from the living room as she fed the couple’s two-week old twins.

In 1996, it was reported in The Irish Times that Gerry Hutch (‘The Monk’) was the criminal who had his jaw broken in the pub fight and that he had been personally responsible for Cox’s murder.

12 Sep. 1988 – Brian Chaney 

Brian Chaney, of 105 Plunkett Road, Finglas, had been up in court in 1984 in relation to an attack on the Barry House pub in Finglas in April 1983 when a large group of youths pushed several cars up against the premises and set them on fire. He and others were acquitted of the offence. In Aug. 1987, Chaney was jailed for 18 months for attacking a Garda and mugging a man in two separate incidents.

On 12 Sep. 1988 around midday, Chaney (24) and his brother-in-law Paul White were walking along Cappagh Road in Finglas nearing Cardiffsbridge Road when a car pulled up and three men jumped out. Chaney was attacked with weapons including a wheel brace. He died of his injuries in hospital six days later. It was reported in the Irish Press (21 Sep. 1987) that the police believed that a criminal gang killed Chaney in a row over drug money.

A small-time Finglas criminal named Willie Christie was arrested and charged with the murder but released – after four months in custody – when the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) dropped the charges due to lack of evidence. Christie was himself killed in a gangland hit in 1990.

A T T E M P T E D   M U R D E R S (70s/80s)

• 26 Aug. 1978: William Bolger and his son Liam were fired on the outside County Bar, Crumlin in what was described as a local feud. Both escaped injury. Police recovered a rifle fitted with a silencer nearby.
  3 April 1983: Aidan Ellis (35) of Rialto Cottages and Gerard Freeman (34) of Redwood Close, Kilnamanagh, Tallaght were shot as they sat in a car outside Ballyfermot Shopping Centre. Both injured but survived.
• 19 April 1984: Michael Collins and Tony Roche, both of Fatima Mansions, were shot at Long’s Place, James’s Walk, Kilmainham. Collins was hit in the stomach and Roche in the leg by the gunman who fled on a bicycle.
• 15 Sep. 1989: Two gunmen shot convicted drug dealer Harry Melia (36) twice in the chest and shoulder as he sat in his home in Cushlawn Park, Tallaght. Melia had a criminal record going back to 1967.
• 22 Aug. 1989: Charles Dunne (43), brother of crime figure Larry Dunne, was shot in the shoulder and mouth by a masked gunman as he drank Lowry’s, bar, Talbot Street. Dunne was hospitalised but survived the attack.
• 8 Dec. 1989: Two masked men burst into the home of Christopher Wade (34) at 225, Dolphin House Flats, South Circular Road and shot him twice as he held his eight-month baby.

A follow-up article will look at gangland murders in the 1990-94 period up to Martin Cahill’s death namely Sonny Mooney (1990), William Christie (1990), Patrick McDonald (1991), Michael Travers (1992), Michal Godfrey (1993), Sean Clarke (1993) and Fran Rodgers (1993).

(c) Sam McGrath 2020