The Criminal Assets Bureau is preparing to seize the Dublin home of the late criminal known as The General, Martin Cahill, according to Garda sources. Mr Cahill's widow, Frances, still lives in the house at Cowper Downs, Rathmines, which is understood to be worth about £300,000. In order for it to be seized, the bureau would have to show that it was purchased from the proceeds of crime.
Cahill was shot five times by an IRA gunman in Ranelagh in August 1994. The IRA claimed he had been involved with the UVF in the bomb and gun attack on The Widow Scallan's pub in Dublin the previous year, but Garda sources dismissed this allegation. Cahill was involved in robberies and other crimes for 20 years, but he was only convicted for minor offences.