Culture

John Gilligan: From feared gangland figure, to failed, jailed criminal

Arrested in October, Gilligan is now one of 800 inmates in a Spanish prison build for 400

John Gilligan leaving Port Laoise Prison after release in 2013. Photograph: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

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Ed Power
Mon Dec 14 2020 - 22:00

John Gilligan: The End of the Line (Virgin Media One, 9pm) is a pacy gangland documentary presented by journalist Nicola Tallant but it never entirely justifies its existence. Why a Gilligan documentary now? What is there to really add to his story?

The straightforward answer is Gilligan – a convicted drug dealer and former drug-gang leader – was arrested on October 20th by police in Spain. Drugs and weapons were seized in the raid on the 68-year-old’s home in Alicante.

Spanish police said the operation was an investigation into an Irish-led criminal gang involved in trafficking guns and drugs to Ireland and the UK. One of the fire-arms was inspected to ascertain if it was the same one used by the Gilligan gang to murder crime journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996.

Gilligan is currently cooling his heels in a prison built for 400 inmates but which now houses 800 (and is the location of the first Covid-related death of a prison officer in Spain). How far he has fallen from the days when he was one of the best-known and most-feared figures in Irish crime.

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Still, details of the arrest are merely tacked on at the end of the film. Most of the 45-minute running time is given over to a potted history of Gilligan’s of life and crimes.

As a recap it is perfectly effective. However, it never rises beyond Reeling In The Years: Gangland Edition.

Gilligan is no longer an important figure in crime in Ireland. And if there is an element of pathos to his decline – to the extent that pathos applies to Ireland’s criminal underworld – The End of the Line lacks the sort of shocking revelations that might deepen or re-frame our understanding of his place in Irish criminal history.

Still Tallant spins the yarn with tremendous effectiveness. She also splices in interviews with Virgin Media crime correspondent, Sarah O’Connor, and various tabloid journalists. We are reminded how Gilligan started off working with Martin “The General” Cahill and that his (Gilligan’s) gang murdered Guerin in 1996.

This was an over-reach and led to the establishment of CAB. Other criminals did not thank him for his efforts. After he was released following a 17-year sentence, most of it for drug trafficking and some for threatening to kill a prison officer, there were several attempts on his life. He later moved to Spain. Gardaí believe he was trying to become established in the drug trade there.

Tallant is careful not to glamorise her subject. One reporter recalls Gilligan saying that he “prayed” for the late Guerin. It was, the journalist continued, “a hard thing to hear from a man that was the head of the gang that killed her”.