Eamon Dunne, nicknamed "The Don", was a major Irish organised crime figure from

Finglas Finglas (; ) is a northwestern outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It lies close to Junction 5 of the M50 motorway, and the N2 road. Nearby suburbs include Glasnevin and Ballymun; Dublin Airport is to the north. Finglas lies mainly in the posta ...

, North Dublin."Badfellas" Paul Williams (2011) Penguin Ireland He led a gang based in Finglas, Cabra, and

Ballymun Ballymun () is an outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland, at the northern edge of the Northside, the green-field development of which began in the 1960s to accommodate a housing crisis in inner city areas of Dublin. While the newly built housing was ...

, who were involved in

drug dealing The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs throug ...

armed robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

and murder. 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. Dunne was linked to 17 gangland murders over the next three years, as he consolidated his position by having rivals and suspected Garda

informers An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informan ...

killed.

Death

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. 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. Thirty-four-year-old Dunne was murdered as he attended a friend's birthday party at a

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

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. The first gunman shot Dunne twice in the chest & once in the head, with the second gunman also performing the "

Mozambique Drill The Mozambique Drill,See section on Mozambique. also known as the Failure Drill, or Failure to Stop drill and, informally, as "two to the body, one to the head," is a close-quarters shooting technique that requires the shooter to fire twice into t ...

" on him as he lay on the ground. Despite his bodyguard and a number of close associates being present, nobody made any attempt to prevent the murder. 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 Cash-in-transit (CIT) or cash/valuables-in-transit (CVIT) is the physical transfer of banknotes, coins, credit cards and items of value from one location to another. The locations include cash centers and bank branches, ATM points, large retaile ...

van in

Celbridge Celbridge (; ) is a town and townland on the River Liffey in County Kildare, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is west of Dublin. Both a local centre and a commuter town within the Greater Dublin Area, it is located at the intersection of the ...

in 2007. No one has been convicted of his murder. Victims While not pulling the trigger himself, Dunne was suspected of ordering at least a dozen gangland murders in the years before his death. The victims included: *John Paul Joyce (30), a drug trafficker, shot dead and body dumped near

Dublin Airport Dublin Airport (Irish language, Irish: ''Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath'') is an international airport serving Dublin, Ireland. It is operated by DAA (Irish company), DAA (formerly Dublin Airport Authority). The airport is located in Collinsto ...

in January 2010. *David Thomas (43), shot dead in Finglas in October 2009. *Paul Smyth (34), from Finglas, killed and dumped in

Balbriggan Balbriggan (; , IPA: �bˠalʲəˈbʲɾʲɪɟiːnʲ is a coastal town in Fingal, in the northern part of County Dublin, Ireland, approximately 34 km from Dublin City. The 2016 census population was 21,722 for Balbriggan and its environs. ...

, June 2009. *Michael Murray (41), shot dead in Finglas, March 2009. *Graham McNally (34), formerly a close associate, shot dead in Finglas, January 2009. *Michael 'Roly' Cronin (35), a major drug dealer, and James Maloney (26), his driver, shot dead in Dublin city centre, January 2009. *Paul 'Farmer' Martin (30), a convicted bank robber, shot dead at a

in Finglas, August 2008. *Trevor Walsh (33), shot dead at Kippure Park, Finglas, two days after he was released from prison, in July 2008. *John Daly (27), shot dead as he sat in a

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...

in Finglas, October 2007, two months after his release from prison, where he served a nine-year sentence for armed robbery.

Death

References

Further reading