Wayne DundonThe key figure in Limerick's notorious McCarthy-Dundon gang, he is regarded by gardaí as having driven much of the violence between that grouping and the Keane-Collopy faction in a dispute that became known as simply "the Limerick feud". Dundon is just one member of his own gang currently in prison, with the series of jailings having largely put the group out of action. The 35-year-old is serving a six-year sentence after the Special Criminal Court found him guilty of a number of charges including making a threat to kill and intimidating a court case witness.
Keane-Collopy Gang
The murder of Kieran Keane (above) in Limerick by the McCarthy-Dundon gang in 2003 began the city’s feud. While Keane was the leader of the Keane-Collopy faction there were other key members. However, many of them are now in prison or are dead. Last year Kieran (36) and Damian Collopy (22) were jailed for threatening to kill a man. Their brother Brian (38) was jailed for intimidating the same man while another brother, Philip, accidentally shot himself in the head with a Glock pistol in 2009.
Brian Rattigan
The Dubliner is serving a life sentence for the stabbing murder of rival drug dealer Declan Gavin (21) in 2001. He also has convictions for drug dealing and is the leader of one of two gangs in the neighbouring suburbs of Crumlin and Drimnagh whose feud since 2001 has claimed a dozen lives, most of them in gun murders. The absence of the 30-year-old on the streets of Dublin is cited as one of the main reasons tensions have eased in the Crumlin and Drimnagh gangland feud. The extradition to Spain of the other gang leader is seen by gardaí as a significant factor in the levels of violence falling in recent years.
Michael Kelly
The 30-year-old from Baldoyle in north Dublin was shot dead in Coolock last September. The leader of a criminal gang, he was suspected of involvement in five gun murders in the four years before he was shot dead. Kelly had already been successfully targeted by the Criminal Assets Bureau, which took property and vehicles from him. Gardaí believe he was on his way to becoming one of the most significant figures ever in Irish gangland crime when he was shot, although he was hiding from his enemies at the time he was gunned down.
Christy Kinahan
The 55-year-old Dubliner and convicted drug dealer has been a major supplier to drugs gangs in Ireland and England from his bases including locations in Spain and Amsterdam for most of the past 10 years. His gang were all arrested in Spain two years ago. While he was bailed, he was then extradited to Belgium to serve a four-year term for money laundering. His jailing seriously disrupted one of the key drugs supply routes into Ireland from Europe.
Photographs: The Sunday World and Collins