THEY prowl by night and party during the day. They prey on people. They are violent vigilantes who menace and create mayhem. They plan murders. They are unrepentantly vicious. That’s the public perception and it isn’t far removed from the reality.
They are members of the McCarthy-Dundon Limerick criminal gang who have
recently regrouped. But there’s many more like them. More lawless Wildwest
than Westlife, who at least intend to disband later this year.
Barry Doyle, believed to be working for this particular gang, had pleaded not
guilty to the murder of Shane Geoghegan, the rugby player, who was
mistakenly thought to be working for the rival Keane-Collopy gang.
The jury of the Central Criminal Court were told that the accused may have got
the wrong man but the prosecution hadn’t. The jury agreed and delivered a
verdict of guilty, as Doyle stood and smiled from the dock. Mr Justice
Garrett Sheehan imposed the mandatory life sentence.
We know a lot about the comings and goings of the Casey and Collopy clans, the
Keanes, McCarthys and Dundons thanks to the intrepid investigations of crime
reporters Jim Cusack, Paul Williams and Tom Brady. And to programmes such as
TV3′s Gangland Ireland series, recently repeated. We’re living ‘in the
shadow of gunmen’, as RTE’s Prime Time put it.
One fortnight alone in Ireland has seen the slaughter of Melanie McNamara; the
murder of Andrew Allen, who was shot through the window of his house in
Buncrana; the stabbing of a man in Rathmines; the stabbing to death of
Kieran Monaghan in Co Kilkenny and the arrest of two men in Cork as part of
a suspected dissident republican activity. This spate of killings has left
people fearful and running scared.
We could label these mainly young men as ‘scumbag thugs’ who have no respect
for anything or anyone. But is that all they are? Are they just that? Can
they change? Is redemption possible, desirable even? What should we do with
them? Put them away? Or try to understand them? Both? To attempt to
understand them is not to excuse anyone’s actions. It is to put things in
proper perspective.
Bloody family feuds. Gangland assassinations. Drug barons wielding weapons of
wanton destruction. All for what end exactly?
Decent people say: “I hope they’ll all shoot each other dead. Sorry to
say it but there you are.” That’s a reaction. It’s understandable. But
it’s not a response. Reactions are instinctual. Responses are rational.
Unfortunately, innocent people can get caught in the crossfire and end up
dead.
That’s why evil such as theirs can have no hold here. Hardcore measures can
combat a lot of crime.
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