Crime World

It was a brutal gangland murder that made headlines across the world. Now, two years on from the murder of 17-year-old Keane Mulready Woods, it seems an uneasy peace has descended on Drogheda.

With two men facing trial this year for the teenager's murder, a third man due to be sentenced in relation to the disposal of his body and a number of key players in the feuding gangs behind bars or on the run, a lot has changed for the rival mobs.

Nicola Tallant talks with Irish Independent Crime Correspondent Ken Foy, who says that despite the crackdown on organised crime and the success in breaking up two powerful gangs in the commuter town, gardai remain on high alert for a return to violence.

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He is a well known Criminal Assets Bureau target who was once put on trial for a tiger kidnapping, but Dubliner Jonathan Gill has now launched a new venture as a conflict negotiator and says he can solve disputes in broken marriages, business upheavals and even in neighbourhood rows.

With no major convictions, Gill says he is innocent of any involvement in crime but the courts have heard differently - and on one occasion he was described as one of Ireland’s top criminals.

Here, Nicola Tallant chats with Sunday World Deputy Editor Niall Donald about Gill and his new business venture.

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In Northern Ireland’s troubled past there have been hundreds of atrocities and thousands of lives lost - but one 24-hour period stands out as the most brutal of all.

Forty five years ago this week, unprecedented slaughter visited a small corner of south Armagh and left its mark forever on both the landscape and the lives of those left behind.

First, was the brutal murder of the Catholic Reavey brothers, John Martin and Brian, just 24 and 22-years-old when they were gunned down in their family home.

Their 17-year-old brother, Anthony, catastrophically injured in the ambush, would die weeks later. The attack was carried out by the notorious 'Glennanne Gang', made up of rogue police and army officers working in collusion with loyalist terrorists in a sick bid to ethnically cleanse the catholic population.
Twenty minutes after the ambush, in a co-ordinated attack, three members of the O’Dowd family were slaughtered in their home in nearby County Down by a UVF hit team.

But that wasn’t the end of the killings. Within 24 hours of the murders, a suspected IRA terror mob carried out the shocking Kingsmill massacre of 10 innocent protestant textile workers and one more who miraculously survived.

So what is the legacy of such appalling events and after four-and-a-half decades is the British government's plans for a Troubles amnesty a line in the sand or an outrage to those still seeking justice?

Nicola Tallant and Sunday World colleague Hugh Jordan visit peace campaigner Eugene Reavey, as he recalls the dreadful events that visited his life and they consider the stark reality that some scars will never heal.

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Mary Turner Thomson’s world shattered when she discovered her husband Will was a bigamist, con man and convicted sex offender.
Unbeknownst to her, this would be the start of a bold new chapter in her life, fighting to protect other women from his heartless gaslighting campaigns — and putting a stop to his endless deception.

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It’s been an unhappy New Year for former socialite Ghislaine Maxwell as she faces up to 65 years behind bars

But, as the dust settles on her sensational conviction for sex trafficking in a New York Court, the focus has moved to what will happen next.

Nicola Tallant talks to Toronto Sun crime journalist and author Brad Hunter about the possibility of Maxwell trying to cut a last minute deal for a reduced sentence, about her life behind bars in a US jail and about the rising heat for Prince Andrew as he fights a looming civil case from alleged victim Virginia Roberts.

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Detective Anthony Amore tracks down stolen art and follows clues all over the world hunting priceless masterpieces which have been snatched by thieves.
Today, Amore talks to Nicola Tallant about one time heiress, Rose Dugdale, who gave up a charmed life to become an IRA activist and a thief who picked out the jewels of Russborough House in Wicklow and later inspired the legendary criminal Martin 'The General' Cahill.
He also reveals what he thinks about another famous criminal Martin ‘The Viper’ Foley and his tall tales.

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John, Keith, Alan, Eric and Luke Wilson were once Ireland’s most feared gangland family who terrorised the underworld and threatened the pillars of the State.

Bonded by blood, the five Wilsons operated as guns for hire as they honed their skills as killing machines in the brutal world of feuding drug gangs.

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It’s a missing person’s case that has cast a dark shadow over a small town in County Mayo where the haunting face of Sandra Collins stares out from posters more than 20 years since she was last seen.

However, Sandra has not been forgotten despite the passage of time. Her brother and sister still hope that they can one day lay her to rest and find their own peace from the nightmare of her mystery disappearance.

Sandra had just found out she was pregnant on the night she was last seen buying chips from a takeaway in Killala.

Now, Bridie Conway and Patrick Collins remember their fun-loving sister and recall her lonely life caring for an elderly aunt in a small town of secrets.

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The jury in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell has adjourned for the Christmas holidays with the fate of the infamous New York socialite hanging in the balance.

Ms. Maxwell, who turns 60 on Christmas Day, has pleaded not guilty to her role in the recruiting and grooming of girls for sexual abuse by her long-term lover and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Defence attorneys, however, maintain she is a scapegoat for crimes committed by Epstein.

Journalist Brad Hunter, who has been covering the court case, gives Eamon Dillon an insight into the testimony against Maxwell and reveals why her attorneys hold out hope for an acquittal.

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Forty years ago this month, 21-year-old Jake Mac Siacais cried in his H-Block cell as his friend Bobby Sands died on hunger strike.
Jake had been in the next cell to the republican icon, and when Sands left the wing to go to the prison hospital, it was Jake who gave the final address on behalf of the IRA prisoners.
Now 61, Nicola Tallant travels with him to Bobby Sands' grave at the republican plot in Belfast and is given unprecedented access to a man who can shed new light on one of the darkest periods of the Troubles.

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