(Regarding crime and Dublin, the blog has previously looked at 18th century gang violence; joy-riding in Dublin from 1918-39; War of Independence bank-robberies; the 1920s ‘Sons of Dawn‘ who were rounded up by the IRA; the life of career criminal Henchico who died in 1968; Animal Gang violence in 1942; vigilante violence in Dublin (1970 – 1984); the Bugsy Malone gangs of the 1970s and Triad gang violence in 1979)
Recent gangland feuds in Dublin and other Irish cites have made newspaper headlines worldwide. The Hutch-Kinahan conflict has resulted in the deaths of 20 people alone since 2015. 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 become more ruthless and more liable to murder rivals in tit-for-tat killings.
This article is the first in a series on gangland killings that occurred in Dublin pre-1994. It does not seek to eulogise anyone but instead explore Dublin’s criminal underworld of 30-40 years ago. It maps stories of old Dublin – flat complexes that have been torn down, pubs that have been redeveloped and the names of many young men all but forgotten except for family and close friends. But it sadly also illustrates that many of the same impoverished working-class areas affected by gun violence in the 1970s and 1980s are still some of the same neighbourhoods hit hardest today.
There were certainly cases of criminal gangs in Dublin using guns to injure and main rivals in the 1960s and 1970s but the first murders that I can identify occurred in the late 1970s. The list does not include:
- 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 parts premeditated ‘hits’ and firearms were used in all but one of the murders. If you aware of any other cases, please email me or leave a comment.
I have identified ten 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).
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 to 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.
Christy McCauley. The Irish Press, 21 March 1978.
Saurin was described in the book ‘Smack’ (1985) by Sean Flynn and Padraic 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.
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 a “gangland slaying” and reported that the police believed the murder was connected to an “internal gangland feud”.
Basil English. The Irish Press, 27 April 1979.
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.
Thomas Tyrell following the five day siege. The Irish Independent, 16 Oct. 1979.
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.
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 Moss 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.
Scene outside Grace’s pub on Townsend St. where Jackie Kelly was murdered. The Evening Herald, 18 Sep 1980.
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.
Front page story regarding Gerard Morgan’s murder. The Evening Herald, 26 May 1982.
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.
Memorial photos of Anthony Hopkins and his mother. The Evening Herald, 30 Dec. 1989.
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 were two serious players from Swords with former Irish republican paramilitary links – Tommy Savage (‘The Zombie’) and Michael Weldon.
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 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.
Scene of Gerry Hourigan’s murder. The Evening Herald, 11 April 1983.
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 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 the aforementioned Thomas Savage (‘The Zombie’) 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.
Scene of Danny McOwen’s murder. The Irish Press, 15 June 1983.
26 Dec. 1983 – Edward Hayden (aka 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.
Eddie Hayden pictured after a boxing match. The Irish Independent, 28 Dec 1983.
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.
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 the 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. An article in the Sunday World (28 May 1995) suggested that Cox had punched a female relation of ‘The Monk’ during the scrap which led her being “put on a life support machine”.
Scene of Mel Cox’s shooting in Blanchardstown. The Evening Herald, 1 July 1987.
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.
The Barry House, Finglas West (1980s). Dublin City Council Photographic Collection. Dublincity.ie
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