Gavin Byrne was never in the frame for the Rattigan murder, but he was able to use violence when the occasion called for it. On 13 June 2002, he was arrested along with Aidan Gavin, after the front door of a house at Park Terrace in Dublin 8 was kicked in, and five shots from a .38 Smith and Wesson were discharged randomly. There were five people in the house at the time. Freddie Thompson’s cousin, David Byrne, was the intended target. There was not enough evidence to charge either man, but it would later be determined that the .38 used in that attack was the same gun used to murder Joey Rattigan. So although there is no suggestion that Byrne was involved deep down and dirty in Joey Rattigan’s murder, he was certainly no innocent.
Geoghegan and Byrne were very close and were rarely seen without each other. Because of their tightness and the fact that they had access to vast amounts of money, serious tensions began to develop within the gang in early 2005. It is believed that some of the other gang members felt that the pair had become too big. They voiced the opinion that they didn’t trust them with the cash, and felt that they were squirreling away money for themselves. There is no evidence at all to suggest that either Geoghegan or Byrne were creaming money off their own side, but gangland is dominated by paranoia, and the unfounded and unprovensuspicions of one man can often turn into accepted fact.
On 21 October 2005, both Byrne and Geoghegan were arrested during a joint Garda and Customs operation at Rosslare Harbour in Wexford. The pair had just got off a car ferry and the black Volkswagen Golf belonging to Byrne was stopped and searched. A high-powered Beretta pellet gun and ammunition was found in the boot of the car. Byrne took full responsibility for it and said he had recently bought it in Spain and had it for his own protection. The pellet gun was seized. The incident illustrated that Gavin Byrne probably knew that his life was in danger and he was taking steps to protect himself. It was probable that the two friends were aware that they were under suspicion within their own gang. Geoghegan routinely wore a bulletproof vest when driving around the city, and when he was stopped by Gardaí, they discovered that he was wearing protective clothing. Even though both men probably feared the rumblings of discontent from within their own ranks, it is probably safe to say that the last thing they expected was Freddie Thompson sanctioning their murders.
On Sunday 13 November, Darren Geoghegan and Gavin Byrne drove to the Carrickwood estate in Firhouse, near Tallaght in South Dublin, at around 9.30 p.m. The men were in a silver Lexus, which had been imported from Northern Ireland. Gardaí believe that they had been told to meet a senior member of the gang to take part in some sort of job on an unknown target on the opposite side of the feud. This is the assumption because the two men were only wearing track-suits and runners and had no socks on. There were two sets of clothing in a plastic bag in the boot of the Lexus. (Changes of clothes are often brought by criminals when they are carrying out shootings. They usually strip off the first set after carrying out the shooting and burn them, often along with the getaway car.) The fact that both men were wearing bulletproof vests also indicated that they had taken precautions to ensure that they would return safely from whatever job they were going to carry out. Less than two minutes after the Lexus parked in the quiet housing estate, a silver BMW 5 Series, which had been stolen in Northern Ireland the previous week, pulled up alongside the car. Geoghegan and Byrne saw somebody they knew emerge from the BMW. Byrne clicked open the central locking, and the man got into the back seat of the Lexus, leaving the two men in front of him in very vulnerable positions. The fact that the man was allowed to get into the back seat without Geoghegan and Byrne being suspicious leads to the conclusion that the person was well known to them and absolutely trusted. Neither Byrne nor Geoghegan were armed, which suggests that they were not expecting a confrontation. The man was in the car only a matter of seconds before he pulled out a Sig Sauer pistol and opened fire. Darren Geoghegan was shot twice in the back of the head. Before he had time to react, Byrne also had two bullets fired into the back of his head. Both men died instantly. They would not have been alive long enough to know what was happening. The gunman got out of the Lexus and walked to the waiting BMW, which sped off towards Clondalkin. The gunman was dropped off and made his escape in another vehicle, while the driver went to Glenvara Park in Templeogue, where he set the vehicle alight causing it to explode, thereby eliminating the possibility of any forensic clues being left behind. The scene of the burning of the getaway car was literally a minute away from Carrickwood. The driver then ran through a field and jumped over a railing onto the main Ballycullen Road, where he was picked up and left the area in a Volkswagen Golf that had been stolen in Bray.
When the fire brigade managed to quell the flames of the BMW getaway car, Gardaí recovered two Sig 9mm pistols in the shell of the burnt-out vehicle. They had been melted by the flames, meaning that there was very little forensic evidence left to be examined. All in all, it was a difficult case for Gardaí to investigate. If a rival gang carries out a murder, it is usually opportunistic in nature or involves planning by several people, which means that information often makes its way into the hands of investigators. This was different. Gardaí initially suspected that Brian Rattigan’s gang was behind the double murder, and that Geoghegan and Byrne might have arranged for a meeting with their rivals to discuss a ceasefire and were then ambushed. When this line of investigation hit a brick wall, it soon became clear that it was an internal gang row that led to the deaths.
Gardaí are convinced that Darren Geoghegan’s best friend, Paddy Doyle, murdered Geoghegan and Byrne. The theory behind the crime is that the men were executed over an internal dispute about money, and that Freddie Thompson sanctioned the killings. If this is the case, then it is inconceivable that they were murdered before the rest of the gang got to find out where their money was invested. The last thing that Freddie Thompson would have allowed to happen was the loss of two of his top lieutenants without any financial gain to show for it. Detectives believe that before their deaths, Geoghegan and Byrne must have shared information about the gang’s cash.
The double murder investigation was run out of Tallaght Garda Station and was led by Superintendent Declan Coburn with Denis Donegan as the Detective Superintendent in joint charge. The day-to-day running of the probe was the responsibility of Detective Inspector Seamus Kane and Detective Sergeant Tom Doyle in Rathfarnham. There was a realisation among senior Gardaí that there was little prospect of the two killings ever being solved, unless one of the Thompson gang took the unlikely route of turning informer and entering the Witness Protection Programme. There was only one arrest in the investigation – a twenty-eight-year-old from Stepaside was detained on suspicion of having information about the getaway car – but this ultimately came to nothing. In the aftermath of the double murder, rumours began to circulate that Geoghegan and Byrne were shot dead by the IRA. There was absolutely no basis for this whatsoever. The story probably spread because the getaway car had been stolen in Co. Antrim, although the fact was that the man who had organised the theft was from Bray, Co. Wicklow, and was a well-known criminal with no political allegiances.
There was predictable political outrage over the fact that two men could be so coldly executed in a middle-class estate. This was the first time that the feud, which had been going on for five years, had really burst into the public consciousness. Most of the general public would not have been aware of the existence of the two gangs, and certainly not the main players. These two murders changed that, and the likes of Freddie Thompson would soon become household names. Justice Minister Michael McDowell was quick to come out and express his anger, saying there was little doubt that the killings were linked to the Crumlin-Drimnagh war. He attributed the deaths to ‘two groups in particular who are engaged in a battle to control cocaine and other drug supplies in Dublin and are willing to use any method whatsoever to bring about superiority over the other,’ before adding, ‘They are people who are completely amoral. This was a very careful, cold and ruthless tr
ap set for two people in a rival gang. All I can say is the Gardaí are putting every resource possible into cracking the gangs behind this feud and preventing them from doing any more damage. They deal in death. Their coinage is death. They don’t care if they kill people through dealing hard drugs or soft drugs because it all means large sums of money. They use death to enforce debt collection operations and they use death in order to knock out rivals in this lethal business. Nobody should be under any illusions that drugs lead directly to this.’
McDowell tried to reassure people by saying that the two sides were under heavy surveillance and that Operation Anvil was working. McDowell ordered a squad of fifty Gardaí to patrol the streets and keep key gang figures under constant surveillance. This new Organised Crime Unit was under the control of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI), spearheaded by Detective Superintendent Dominic Hayes.
The opposition used the double slaying to score political points, but Labour’s Joe Costello made a valid point when he questioned why the conviction rates for gangland murders were so low. Geoghegan and Byrne were the seventeenth and eighteenth gangland murder victims in 2005 alone, yet nobody had been convicted of a single murder. Costello said: ‘We need a fundamental review of the Gardaí’s approach to dealing with the gangs and with gun murders. The conviction rate for those involved in such killings is so low gang leaders know they can order murders with virtual impunity.’
Gangland funerals are always nervous and potentially incendiary events, but Gardaí had special fears about the removal and burials of Geoghegan and Byrne. Because they had been murdered by their own side, tensions within the Thompson organisation would obviously be sky high. These tensions could lead to unpredictable events, and there was nothing to say that the Rattigan gang wouldn’t try to take advantage of the split in the rival gang by trying to take out a couple more of Thompson’s men.
Three hundred mourners filled St Agnes’s Church in Crumlin, as Fr Alan Mowles celebrated Gavin Byrne’s funeral. The priest told the congregation: ‘If any good is to come of this, it is that the violence should stop. There needs to be an end to this senseless killing. It is not an individual we condemn. We condemn the whole drug culture. It is sad that Crumlin is tarnished by the deaths of so many young people. The community has celebrated youth in so many ways. It is sad that we have to say goodbye.’ Byrne’s partner and their three children, as well as his parents, were visibly upset when his favourite song, Michael Jackson’s ‘You Are Not Alone’, was played.
None of Byrne’s criminal pals went to the funeral to say their final farewells. Gardaí were not taking any chances though, and plain-clothes officers were present in and around the church, while members of the National Surveillance Unit discreetly photographed everybody who went into the church. The funeral passed off peacefully.
The theme of an end to violence was also strong at Darren Geoghegan’s funeral mass at Our Lady of Good Counsel church in Drimnagh. Father Martin Cosgrave appealed to those who had influence to end the killing and suffering. ‘Otherwise, we will have more young deaths, more children orphaned, more families decimated. It does not bear thinking about. Darren’s family have asked me to associate them with this appeal.’ Fr Cosgrave said it was very difficult for any mother or father to see their child die in the circumstances in which Darren Geoghegan had passed. ‘No mother wants to see her child kill or be killed. Padraig Pearse, the poet, when speaking of mothers, put it very well when he said: ‘We suffer in their coming and their going.’ The priest remembered how Geoghegan had been baptised, received his First Communion and Confirmation in the same church. ‘No doubt but that these days were filled with hope for Darren that his life would be long and fulfilled. It hasn’t worked out as hoped,’ he added sadly.
Darren Geoghegan’s friends are adamant that Paddy Doyle was not behind his murder. They say that if Doyle got into the back of the car and shot Geoghegan and Byrne, then his DNA would have been left in the car, but there was none. Gardaí, though, point out that if Doyle was meant to meet the two men to go out on a job, then he would probably have worn gloves. They argue that if anybody approached the car wearing gloves, then Geoghegan would have smelled a rat and realised that something was up. The way the two men were murdered left little doubt that they trusted the gunman; they willingly let him into the back seat, while they were vulnerable in the front. Doyle and Darren Geoghegan were best friends and spent a lot of time together. Friends of both men cannot believe that Doyle would have turned on a man who was almost like a brother. They even say that Paddy Doyle was not even in the country when the two murders were carried out. They say he only arrived back in the country the following day when he learned of the deaths. Gardaí say there is no evidence that Doyle was in the UK when the murders were carried out. An article appeared in a Sunday newspaper in 2008 claiming that Geoghegan and Byrne were preparing to carry out a murder when they were killed. The same article claimed that the two men had both had body waxes, so they wouldn’t leave any hair fibres after carrying out the murder they were allegedly planning. The Geoghegan family issued a statement in response to the claims made in the article. It said: ‘Three years after this tragedy these false claims are being made about our son and brother. This has caused terrible suffering for our family.’ The statement also denied claims that Darren Geoghegan had grown up with Paddy Doyle. ‘Darren was never a childhood friend of Patrick Doyle’s. Since Patrick’s murder [Paddy Doyle had himself been shot dead in Spain by this time] our two families are helping each other through our bereavement.’
Numerous detectives interviewed as part of the research for this book say they have no doubt whatsoever that Patrick Doyle was the murderer. The question is, if he was not responsible, then who did kill Darren Geoghegan and Gavin Byrne? Friends and associates of both men have put forward other theories on the crime. They say that Darren Geoghegan was questioned over the John Roche murder in Kilmainham in March 2005. Perhaps it was Noel Roche who carried out the shooting as revenge, thinking that Geoghegan had been responsible for his brother’s death. This theory doesn’t really stack up though, because there is no way that Geoghegan and Byrne would have allowed Noel Roche or any of the Rattigan gang to get into a car with them, and especially not in the back seat. Others have suggested that maybe Darren Geoghegan wasn’t even supposed to be in the car with Gavin Byrne that night. Geoghegan was popular within his own gang and was trusted, whereas Gavin Byrne would have been less established.
Another theory has developed over the years, and it is one that some Gardaí give credence to. This theory is that there was a Bray, Co. Wicklow, connection to the double murder. A leading criminal from Bray organised the getaway car that was used after the killings. So what’s to say that he didn’t organise the hit man as well? In early 2009, information was received, following several feud-related incidents, that a man in his early thirties from Bray might have been responsible for several feud-related shootings. It was suggested that he might have been used by the Thompson gang as far back as the Geoghegan and Byrne murders, although there is nothing to physically link him to the crime scene. Again, you would have to wonder why the two men would have allowed a stranger into the back of their car, unless a second person was with him, perhaps a senior gang member who would obviously have been trusted. People who knew Byrne and Geoghegan maintain that they were not aware that their lives were in danger, and were not showing any signs that there was internal strife in the gang. If the pair knew they were in danger, friends argue, then they would have left the country and headed to England or Spain until the heat died down.
Friends of Gavin Byrne and Darren Geoghegan are very unhappy with the Garda investigation into the double murder. They are frustrated that a reconstruction of the murder was due to be carried out and featured on Crimeline on RTÉ, but never happened. It is fair to say that the double murder investigation never really got off the ground, but statistically it is very seldom that gangland murders are solved, unless there is a confessio
n or a gang member breaks ranks, and that is rare. It is possible that in the near future a fresh investigation will be launched into the double murder, possibly by the Garda ‘Cold Case’ unit, to see if any new evidence comes to light.
On the evening of 15 November 2005, two days after Darren Geoghegan and Gavin Byrne had been shot dead, Noel Roche was preparing for a night out. Roche and his cohorts in the Brian Rattigan gang had spent the previous forty-eight hours trying to work out what the hell had happened at the housing estate in Firhouse. Two key members of Freddie Thompson’s gang lay in a morgue, but Rattigan had absolutely nothing to do with it. It was a mystery, and the only thing that the twenty-seven-year-old could think was that there was some serious civil war going on within Thompson’s mob that would drive them to such lengths to start killing their own. There was no point in looking a gift horse in the mouth, and Roche was probably more than happy that Thompson’s gang’s number had been reduced by two, and felt sure that the internal strife was not over. He would happily sit back and let Thompson’s crew murder each other, but if he got half the chance, he would take them out himself.
Cocaine Wars Page 16