The fact that Friday’s gun attack in the Regency Hotel in Dublin, in which one man was killed and two more were injured, was followed so quickly on Monday night by what is believed to be a retaliatory killing demonstrates the reality of such violence: it is rarely confined nor is it easily containable. As such, it is a direct challenge to the values that underpin our society, all the more so when in the case of Monday night’s attack it is carried out despite a high-visibility Garda operation intended to prevent precisely such an outcome. It is an affront to our system of law and order.
The presence of cameras at the scene of Friday’s attack removed the barrier that normally insulates the wider community from such incidents. The chaotic scenes, as those attending a boxing weigh-in ran for safety, provided an insight into the reality of such crime. For some, there may be a misconception that such events belong to a parallel world. Monday night’s shooting merely highlights how wrong this view is.
A relatively straightforward narrative has emerged since Friday – that the initial attack was carried out in retaliation for a murder in Spain last year and that two notorious organised crime families are pitched against each other. A claim on Monday that the Continuity IRA was responsible for the earlier killing added another dimension to the picture.
But, as Monday night’s shooting shows, there is no avoiding the reality that those at the top of organised crime – ordinary or subversive – believe they can order killings without fear of official sanction. Their primary concern appears to relate only to personal security and the risk of reprisal, rather than any apprehension they will be subject to the criminal justice system. Indeed, prior to Friday’s shooting, the imminence of an attack had been speculated about in some sections of the media.
That sense of being untouchable brings real dangers to our society. The fate of Shane Geoghegan, murdered in Limerick in 2008 after being mistaken for the real target, is a case in point. And the killing of journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996 was the culmination of a period where those involved in organised crime had become increasingly brazen in their activities. Her death, in particular, prompted an unprecedented response including new legislation and the establishment of the Criminal Assets Bureau.
This provided reassurance at that time that the State was equipped, determined and resourced to respond to what was correctly viewed as a challenge to our common values. But after swingeing cuts to the Garda overtime budget and faced with a new generation of organised crime, it is time to reassess whether that reassurance has stood the test of time. Crime was always likely to feature in the general election campaign, particularly in rural areas. It has now moved centre stage and in a manner few would have anticipated.