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Eamon Dunne

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Eamon Dunne (17 February 1976 – 23 April 2010) was a major Irish organised crime figure from Finglas, North Dublin.[1][2] Nicknamed "The Don" by media outlets, Dunne led a gang based in Finglas, Cabra, and Ballymun, who were involved in drug dealing, armed robbery, extortion and murder.[2] He took control of the gang after the murder of crime boss Martin "Marlo" Hyland, who was shot dead in December 2006, and Gardaí suspect that Dunne, who was one of Hyland's closest associates, drove the getaway car for the killers.[3][4]

Dunne was linked to 17 gangland murders over the next three years, as he consolidated his position by having rivals and suspected Garda informers killed.[5] He was considered Ireland's "public enemy number one" at the time of his murder.[6]

Early life

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The son of Eamon and Margaret Dunne,[7] Eamon Dunne was born on February 17, 1976,[8] and grew up in Cabra. Unlike many of his criminal contemporaries, he completed his Leaving Certificate examinations, attending St Declan's College. Prior to becoming a criminal, he first worked in meat wholesale, later becoming a taxi driver.[8] He ran a motor business, which he used as a front for his criminal activities.[9]

Dunne was believed by Gardaí to be a woman-beater who had assaulted his girlfriend and had a long history of violence towards other women.[4][10]

Criminal activities

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A member of Marlo Hyland's crime gang, Dunne first came to Garda attention in 2002 after being caught at a house during a raid with a large quantity of cocaine and ecstasy; at the time of his death, he was due to stand trial for this in the Supreme Court. Several months later, Dunne was stopped while driving a car and a man was found bound and gagged in the boot.[9]

In 2006, Hyland was murdered at the home of a relative in Finglas, along with innocent plumber Anthony Campbell;[11] it is suspected that Dunne was responsible for ordering Hyland's murder and drove the getaway car.[4] Following Hyland's murder, Dunne quickly filled the power vacuum and took control of the drug trade in Dublin.[4]

Dunne had forged links with a number of other criminal groups, including "Fat" Freddie Thompson's criminal group in Dublin and the McCarthy-Dundon gang in Limerick, the latter of whom he reportedly organized the murder of Latvian woman Baiba Saulite for.[10]

For many years, newspapers were not able to name Dunne in their reports for legal reasons, instead dubbing him "The Don". Dunne sent several unsuccessful legal letters to newspapers, claiming that their reports placed his life in jeopardy.[12][13]

At the time of his death, Dunne was on bail and awaiting trial in connection with a €900,000 robbery of a cash-in-transit van in Celbridge in 2007.[14] The Irish Independent reported that he was expected to face a number of criminal charges under gangland legislation should he not have been murdered.[6]

Victims

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Dunne was noted for his extreme propensity for murder, including his own associates.[10] While not pulling the trigger himself, Dunne was suspected of ordering at least a dozen gangland murders in the years before his death.[4]

The victims included:

  • John Paul Joyce (30), a drug trafficker, shot dead and body dumped near Dublin Airport in January 2010.[15]
  • David Thomas (43), shot dead in Finglas in October 2009.[4]
  • Paul Smyth (34), from Finglas, killed and dumped in Balbriggan, June 2009.[16]
  • Michael Murray (41), shot dead in Finglas, March 2009.[17]
  • Graham McNally (34), formerly a close associate, shot dead in Finglas, January 2009.[18]
  • Michael 'Roly' Cronin (35), a major drug dealer, and James Maloney (26), his driver, shot dead in Dublin city centre, January 2009.[19]
  • Paul 'Farmer' Martin (30), a convicted bank robber, shot dead at a pub in Finglas, August 2008.[16]
  • Trevor Walsh (33), shot dead at Kippure Park, Finglas, two days after he was released from prison, in July 2008.[20]
  • John Daly (27), shot dead as he sat in a taxi in Finglas, October 2007, two months after his release from prison, where he served a nine-year sentence for armed robbery.[21]

Downfall and death

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For several years, Dunne had suffered from anxiety and paranoia; it was reported that in 2001 he had expressed suicidal thoughts to his GP, and two years later he was reportedly drinking eight cans of alcohol a night and snorting large quantities of cocaine.[22] Dunne was also reportedly in financial difficulty before his death, having walked onto a halting site the weekend before his murder and demanded €20,000 from two men.[23]

Dunne's increasing paranoia and unstable behaviour eventually led to his own gang members turning against him and they conspired with others to have him killed. Gardaí believe a major Irish drug trafficker based in Spain, who supplied Dunne's gang with drugs and a veteran crime boss based in North Dublin, who acted as a mentor to Dunne, were angry at Dunne for bringing too much Garda attention to gangland.[24][25][26][27] Together with some of Dunne's closest associates they are suspected of organising his murder and of hiring a gang of young criminals from the north inner city to actually carry out the hit.[28]

Thirty-four-year-old Dunne was murdered as he attended a friend's birthday party at a pub in Cabra on 23 April 2010. A hit team of four men arrived in a car, one of them waved his gun around and warned smokers outside the pub to disperse. He then guarded the front door. Two masked gunmen entered and shot Dunne several times in the head and body, in front of his seventeen-year-old daughter, before escaping in a waiting car.[29] Dunne unsuccessfully attempted to use a loungeboy as a human shield[30] before the first gunman shot Dunne twice in the chest & once in the head, with the second gunman also performing the "Mozambique Drill" on him as he lay on the ground.[31] Despite his bodyguard and a number of close associates being present, nobody made any attempt to prevent the murder.[31]

Dunne's murder was widely celebrated; the mother of plumber Anthony Campbell, who was murdered during Dunne's assassination of Martin Hyland, said he was now "drinking with the devil",[32] while Cormac Byrne of the Irish Independent described him as a "vicious and nasty paranoid coke-fuelled mess".[33] Senior Gardaí reported he was the "worst we've ever seen in terms of body counts".[10] Though it is believed that the Kinahan crime group were behind his murder,[34] no one has been ever been convicted for it;[35] speaking to the Irish Times, a Garda source reported that "the list of subjects [would] be very very long".[36]

In 2020, the High Court ruled that insurance company Irish Life did not have to pay out on an insurance policy taken out by Dunne. Legal action had been taken against Irish Life by Dunne's ex-partner Georgina Saunders, but the court found that Dunne's heavy cocaine usage had not been disclosed to the company.[22]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Gangland boss shot dead in packed pub". Belfast Telegraph. 25 April 2010. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  2. ^ a b Williams, Paul (2011). Badfellas. Penguin Ireland. ISBN 978-1844882717.
  3. ^ Foy, Ken (13 March 2012). "Two of Ireland's most dangerous gangsters". The Herald. Archived from the original on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Phelan, Shane (24 April 2010). "'The Don' linked to a dozen underworld murders". Irish Independent. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  5. ^ Cusack, Jim (25 April 2010). "Gardai link assassinated crime boss to 17 murders". Irish Independent. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  6. ^ a b "Crime king blasted to death in city pub". Irish Independent. 24 April 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  7. ^ "Funeral of gang boss Dunne held". The Irish Times. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  8. ^ a b "The champagne wealth; the pint-of-plain lifestyle". Irish Independent. 1 May 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  9. ^ a b English, Eoin (26 April 2010). "The Don responsible for ordering at least 17 murders". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  10. ^ a b c d "'He was the worst we've seen... He had it coming". tribune.ie. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  11. ^ "The man who groomed Dunne and Hyland". Irish Independent. 20 August 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  12. ^ "Gardai link assassinated crime boss to 17 murders". Irish Independent. 25 April 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  13. ^ "Man alleges 'sinister' media plot by gardaí". The Irish Times. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  14. ^ English, Eoin (26 April 2010). "The Don responsible for ordering at least 17 murders". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  15. ^ Brady, Tom (11 January 2010). "Drug trafficker found dead in ditch was 'gang feud target'". Irish Independent. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  16. ^ a b Phelan, Shane (24 April 2010). "'The Don' linked to a dozen underworld murders". Irish Independent. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  17. ^ Looney, Cormac; Cotter, Eimear (12 January 2010). "Gangland gripped by fear as gun suspect seized after double killing". Irish Independent. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  18. ^ Brady, Tom (21 January 2009). "Target of shooting lured to death by gang boss". Irish Independent. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  19. ^ Brady, Tom (28 November 2011). "Death of notorious druglord 'led to drop in murders'". Irish Independent. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  20. ^ Cusack, Jim (20 July 2008). "Bloody gang feud linked to execution of ex-convict". Irish Independent. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  21. ^ Foy, Ken (11 July 2013). "Thug's thirst for beers led to his murder". The Herald. Retrieved 5 March 2025 – via Irish Independent.
  22. ^ a b "Insurer entitled to refuse €250,000 payout after death of gangster Eamon Dunne". The Irish Times. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  23. ^ "Don's €20k cash threat". Irish Independent. 29 April 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  24. ^ O'Keeffe, Cormac (6 December 2012). "Dublin's gangland in state of violent flux". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  25. ^ O'Toole, Michael (2 December 2012). "Hunt is still on for Eamonn 'The Don' Dunne hitmen". thestar.ie. Archived from the original on 16 December 2013. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  26. ^ Williams, Paul (5 December 2012). "Paul Williams on the life and crimes of Godfather Eamon Kelly". Irish Independent. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  27. ^ Byrne, Cormac (13 May 2010). "Cocaine price war may have resulted in Don's downfall". The Herald. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  28. ^ Foy, Ken (20 November 2012). "Man arrested in dawn raid over 'Don' pub murder". The Herald. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  29. ^ Foy, Ken (21 March 2012). "'The Don' took aggressive call minutes before death". The Herald. Retrieved 5 March 2025 – via Irish Independent.
  30. ^ "Eamon Dunne 'tried to use loungeboy as shield'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  31. ^ a b Byrne, Cormac (30 April 2010). "Killed in 40 seconds". The Herald. Retrieved 5 March 2025 – via Irish Independent.
  32. ^ "'Anthony's killer is now drinking with the devil'". Irish Independent. 27 April 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  33. ^ "He was a vicious and nasty paranoid coke-fuelled mess". Irish Independent. 26 April 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  34. ^ Reynolds, Paul (21 September 2024). "'Ghost', the Kinahans and the gangs that replaced them". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  35. ^ Naughton, Gareth (10 December 2011). "Slain crime lord's father hits out at delay hearing inquest". Irish Independent. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  36. ^ "Leading organised crime figure is shot dead in Dublin". The Irish Times. Retrieved 26 May 2025.

Further reading

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