A 5,000-strong march of solidarity with the Collins family displayed the public's revulsion, writes KATHRYN HAYES
THE MURDER of Roy Collins in the middle of the day just yards from a Garda station was an atrocity that had a profound impact on people across Ireland.
Such was the sense of public revulsion that 5,000 people showed their solidarity with the Collins family and marched through the streets of Limerick in a rally against gangland violence.
Coming just a few months after the similarly cold-blooded murder in Limerick of rugby player Shane Geoghegan, the killing of Collins in April last year triggered a resolve to confront the criminal gangs and led to the introduction of new anti-gangland legislation.
In the words of Roy Collins’s father, Steve, evil revisited his family when the 35-year-old was murdered in the Coin Castle Arcade in Roxboro Shopping Centre, next door to the Steering Wheel pub which Steve still operates.
The publican’s family has been under armed Garda protection since his adopted son, Ryan Lee, testified against gangland figure Wayne Dundon in 2005.
Dundon (24) was convicted of threatening to kill Lee outside Brannigan’s pub after he refused to allow his younger sister Annabel Dundon, who was 14 at the time, into the family-run pub.
Less than half an hour later a gunman wearing a motorcycle helmet walked into the pub and shot the then 19-year-old barman twice. Nobody was charged with the shooting but Wayne Dundon was jailed for 10 years for threatening to kill Lee. This sentence was later reduced to seven years and Wayne Dundon was released from Wheatfield Prison in March. It was Ryan Lee’s testimony that cemented the McCarthy-Dundon gang’s deep hatred of the Collins family. The gang waited five years for revenge.
Yesterday 24-year-old James Dillon, who was recruited by the gang to shoot Collins, was jailed for life for his murder.
A second man, considered to be one of the gang’s most dangerous recruits, was with Dillon on the day of the murder.
This man, who is in his early 20s, was arrested following Roy Collins’s murder. He has also been questioned about the murder of Shane Geoghegan but has not been charged in connection with either killing.
He went into hiding immediately after Shane Geoghegan’s murder but turned up again just days before Roy Collins was killed.
Speaking after James Dillon was jailed for life yesterday, Steve Collins repeated his call for those who ordered his son’s death to be brought to justice and described Dillon as “an idiot who was carrying out an order”.
“These people are cowards, as far as I’m concerned. They won’t go and do these things themselves. They get the likes of James Dillon to go do it, an idiot,” he said. “I know there was a group of other people involved in this murder and I would like to think if the evidence was gathered and if somebody else came forward with more information that they would be brought to justice because we are dealing with terrible people here . . . they are a menace to society.”
Since the murder of his son, Steven Collins, and his family have campaigned for tough legislation to deal with criminal gangs.
Their campaign has been unrelenting despite continued threats and the recent release from prison of Wayne Dundon.
Before his son was murdered Steve Collins received a letter stating that a €75,000 contract had been put on his head.
Two weeks after the murder Roy’s younger brother Steve Collins jnr was threatened by associates of the McCarthy-Dundon gang as he was driving along the Childer’s Road area of the city.
Steve Collins also received an anonymous letter when Wayne Dundon was put on trial in 2005 for threatening to kill Ryan Lee.
It read: “Steve, if you think it is easy, then think again. Look at all the people that’s dead. Look, if you want to call it quits, you know what to do. If not, we will attack your staff and business. It is up to you.” After the trial extensive damage was caused to Brannigan’s pub in an arson attack.
The pub never reopened and nobody has been charged.
Wayne Dundon was convicted of assaulting two gardaí while he was in custody being questioned about the arson attack on Brannigan’s pub. When he was jailed in 2005 for threatening to kill Ryan Lee, he was described in court by a senior Garda detective as “one of most violent criminals in Limerick city”.
A settled Traveller, he lived in the UK until he was 19 years old, and has convictions there for the robbery of a man who used a wheelchair, and of a 90-year-old woman at her home in London in 1996.
He also has a conviction relating to threats to a prison officer in a public toilet of a Limerick shopping centre and has served prison sentences for handling stolen property, dangerous driving offences and for a charge of assault causing harm.
Since his release from prison he has said in a newspaper interview that he had nothing to do with Roy Collins’s murder, and claimed he has been the victim of a campaign of Garda harassment.
On the eve of the first anniversary last month of Roy Collins’s murder, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy deployed the emergency response unit to Limerick.
He said “difficult times ahead for Limerick” had prompted his decision to deploy the armed specialist intervention unit to the city.
To mark the anniversary Steve Collins unveiled a plaque outside the amusement arcade at Roxboro Shopping Centre where he was killed. The publican urged anyone who reads the message on the plaque to “do the right thing”. “The message is that the world is a dangerous place not because of those who do evil but because of those who look on and do nothing,” he said.