Kate Yo ✍ I was in Dublin's Olympia theatre the night that Gerry "the Monk" Hutch was freed. 


We sat in the circle surrounded by chatter, and a few women in tiny groups gathered together talking secret squirrel.

The event was billed as sold out, but there were empty seats around us most likely left by people off celebrating elsewhere. The event on that evening was Nicola Tallant's Omertà discussing the Regency Hotel attack, who carried it out and why. The catalyst for the feud is the killing of Gary Hutch in Spain, that led to a decade long feud that left eighteen people dead. It was this murder that dragged the Monk in.

The attack in the Regency was carried out by the Hutch gang. Six men entered the Regency during a boxing weigh-in and shot David Byrne dead. The real target was thought to be Daniel Kinahan and Sean McGovern. The attack was over in six minutes, carried out by six men, a shooter and three fake gardai in uniform, along with a man dressed up as a woman, and Kevin "Flat Cap" Murray. After shooting Byrne dead using AK 47's assault rifles the gang fled to waiting cars.

By chance a Sunday World photographer took nine successful pictures, one after the other of flat cap and the man dressed as a woman running away.


After the Regency shooting someone somewhere suggested brokering a peace deal. Three days after the Regency the gardai bugged Jonathan Dowdall's car and fitted it with a tracker. Gerry Hutch and Jonathan Dowdall then travelled north for republicans to broker this deal. The dissidents themselves were heavily infiltrated at this time due to Denis McFadden in the MI5 sting. 

Hutch had good relations with republicans, stretching back a long time. Unknown to both Hutch and Dowdall, Gardai had bugged Dowdall's Toyota Land Cruiser with a listening device and and attached a tracker. The two men in the car travelling north, talked freely, about the feud and other stuff while the Gardai listened and followed where they went.

Dowdall could be heard telling Hutch, them Kinahans are a fucking big army. Hutch is heard saying
the cunts who done Eddie have to fucking go.  This was Gerry's brother shot dead three days after the Regency attack and in revenge for the murder of Byrne. 

Also the Monk's brother Patsy became a target, Kinahan wanted him dead, because he knew Patsy would want revenge following the killing of his son Gary in Spain. The men are heard saying after the attack that David Byrne was left in a heap and the gardai were running around like headless chickens. Dowdall tells Hutch I'm in this with you to the bleeding end. The men also discussed the disposal of the three yokes, thought to be the three AK47's used in the regency hotel. Hutch tells Dowdall they'll be 100 percent on the man and the woman but after that they'll only have speculation.

The tapes, ten of them, show Dowdall's true colours. He came across as callous and manipulative, and the tapes also gave insight into gang culture in Ireland. In court Hutch's team tried to have these tapes collected from the listening device thrown out. They claimed that eight out of the ten of the tapes were recorded in the north and therefore they were out of the court's jurisdiction. This led the three judges to listen to the tapes in private, and they allowed them to be used in evidence.

The spotlight during the trial focused on Jonathan Dowdall. Both the Dowdall family and the Hutch family were known to each other stretching back to when they were kids. One of the Hutch's worked on Dowdall's mother's street trader stall. Dowdall had a good reputation in the community both as a business man and politician. He began his own small company, employing about twelve men. He had a
luxury home on the Navan Road. It was Dowdall and his father that booked a room in the Regency to be used during the attack, they then handed over the key to the Hutch gang.

Dowdall was charged along with the Monk for murder. Within three months he'd made a deal with the cops to remove the murder charge for a lesser sentence of facilitation and serve four years along with
turning state's evidence. Dowdall knew his own words could be used against him and set about constructing a new narrative, to the point of almost rewriting the history.

During the trial Dowdall became petulant. Saying he'd never committed a crime in his life, he wasn't himself back then, that the Hutch gang were terrorising his family, and on and on he went. But the judge had the measure of him, and recognised that Dowdall was a sophisticated and manipulative liar. Dowdall is now in the witness protection programme.

The discussion centred around the breaking of omertà, what was it like to live in hiding, as the judge said, living your life looking over your shoulder. Yet, once the agreement for WPP was secured Dowdall didn't have to make himself look good. He could have got into that witness box and denied all knowledge of the crimes that had happened. Whatever the situation now he and his family are currently in hiding.

These discussions on Omertà by Nicola Tallant that I went to in Belfast and Dublin were absolutely brilliant in their analysis of the Regency attack. And there are other events on this throughout our island.

If there's one in your area - go. You won't be disappointed.

Sources

The two events Omertà in Belfast and Dublin.

Nicola Tallant's book The Clash Of The Clans.

Kate Yo is a Belfast book lover.

Omertà

Kate Yo ✍ I was in Dublin's Olympia theatre the night that Gerry "the Monk" Hutch was freed. 


We sat in the circle surrounded by chatter, and a few women in tiny groups gathered together talking secret squirrel.

The event was billed as sold out, but there were empty seats around us most likely left by people off celebrating elsewhere. The event on that evening was Nicola Tallant's Omertà discussing the Regency Hotel attack, who carried it out and why. The catalyst for the feud is the killing of Gary Hutch in Spain, that led to a decade long feud that left eighteen people dead. It was this murder that dragged the Monk in.

The attack in the Regency was carried out by the Hutch gang. Six men entered the Regency during a boxing weigh-in and shot David Byrne dead. The real target was thought to be Daniel Kinahan and Sean McGovern. The attack was over in six minutes, carried out by six men, a shooter and three fake gardai in uniform, along with a man dressed up as a woman, and Kevin "Flat Cap" Murray. After shooting Byrne dead using AK 47's assault rifles the gang fled to waiting cars.

By chance a Sunday World photographer took nine successful pictures, one after the other of flat cap and the man dressed as a woman running away.


After the Regency shooting someone somewhere suggested brokering a peace deal. Three days after the Regency the gardai bugged Jonathan Dowdall's car and fitted it with a tracker. Gerry Hutch and Jonathan Dowdall then travelled north for republicans to broker this deal. The dissidents themselves were heavily infiltrated at this time due to Denis McFadden in the MI5 sting. 

Hutch had good relations with republicans, stretching back a long time. Unknown to both Hutch and Dowdall, Gardai had bugged Dowdall's Toyota Land Cruiser with a listening device and and attached a tracker. The two men in the car travelling north, talked freely, about the feud and other stuff while the Gardai listened and followed where they went.

Dowdall could be heard telling Hutch, them Kinahans are a fucking big army. Hutch is heard saying
the cunts who done Eddie have to fucking go.  This was Gerry's brother shot dead three days after the Regency attack and in revenge for the murder of Byrne. 

Also the Monk's brother Patsy became a target, Kinahan wanted him dead, because he knew Patsy would want revenge following the killing of his son Gary in Spain. The men are heard saying after the attack that David Byrne was left in a heap and the gardai were running around like headless chickens. Dowdall tells Hutch I'm in this with you to the bleeding end. The men also discussed the disposal of the three yokes, thought to be the three AK47's used in the regency hotel. Hutch tells Dowdall they'll be 100 percent on the man and the woman but after that they'll only have speculation.

The tapes, ten of them, show Dowdall's true colours. He came across as callous and manipulative, and the tapes also gave insight into gang culture in Ireland. In court Hutch's team tried to have these tapes collected from the listening device thrown out. They claimed that eight out of the ten of the tapes were recorded in the north and therefore they were out of the court's jurisdiction. This led the three judges to listen to the tapes in private, and they allowed them to be used in evidence.

The spotlight during the trial focused on Jonathan Dowdall. Both the Dowdall family and the Hutch family were known to each other stretching back to when they were kids. One of the Hutch's worked on Dowdall's mother's street trader stall. Dowdall had a good reputation in the community both as a business man and politician. He began his own small company, employing about twelve men. He had a
luxury home on the Navan Road. It was Dowdall and his father that booked a room in the Regency to be used during the attack, they then handed over the key to the Hutch gang.

Dowdall was charged along with the Monk for murder. Within three months he'd made a deal with the cops to remove the murder charge for a lesser sentence of facilitation and serve four years along with
turning state's evidence. Dowdall knew his own words could be used against him and set about constructing a new narrative, to the point of almost rewriting the history.

During the trial Dowdall became petulant. Saying he'd never committed a crime in his life, he wasn't himself back then, that the Hutch gang were terrorising his family, and on and on he went. But the judge had the measure of him, and recognised that Dowdall was a sophisticated and manipulative liar. Dowdall is now in the witness protection programme.

The discussion centred around the breaking of omertà, what was it like to live in hiding, as the judge said, living your life looking over your shoulder. Yet, once the agreement for WPP was secured Dowdall didn't have to make himself look good. He could have got into that witness box and denied all knowledge of the crimes that had happened. Whatever the situation now he and his family are currently in hiding.

These discussions on Omertà by Nicola Tallant that I went to in Belfast and Dublin were absolutely brilliant in their analysis of the Regency attack. And there are other events on this throughout our island.

If there's one in your area - go. You won't be disappointed.

Sources

The two events Omertà in Belfast and Dublin.

Nicola Tallant's book The Clash Of The Clans.

Kate Yo is a Belfast book lover.

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