John Gilligan says he was happy 'The Monk' was acquitted of murder in candid interview
When asked if he was happy to see Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch being acquitted last year of the murder of Kinahan gang member David Byrne at Dublin’s Regency Hotel in what was deemed the trial of the century, Gilligan said: 'Of course I was.'
Veteran criminal John Gilligan has revealed he was happy when Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch was acquitted of the Regency murder of David Byrne. Gilligan, 72, has also admitted he wished the Kinahan-Hutch feud, that claimed at least 18 lives, never happened.
The mobster also said he also wished “all the feuds in the whole of Ireland” didn’t happen. The pint-sized West Dublin criminal also said “It’s none of my business” when asked if he was surprised Christy Kinahan and his sons Daniel and Christy Junior were put on the FBI’s top ten most wanted list.
“It’s none of my business,” Gilligan said in an interview with Jason O’Toole for Hot Press magazine in the Spanish seaside resort of La Manga.
“I only know Christy. I didn’t know his sons. Why have I got the right to give an opinion about them - the way everybody gives an opinion on me - when I don’t know the facts.”
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When asked if he was happy to see Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch being acquitted last year of the murder of Kinahan gang member David Byrne at Dublin’s Regency Hotel in what was deemed the trial of the century, Gilligan said:” Of course I was. A million percent. I wish him well. I knew him many years ago. The Hutch family was always known as a staunch criminal family. They were no rats, they were against the police. And I always respected them for that. And when I learned later about the Kinahans, the same.
“The Byrne lads, the man that got shot, Lord have mercy on him, I didn’t know them - but I knew their father and mother, and they were good people. I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to them
“If I had one wish,” Gilligan - who earned millions of euro in the 1990s when he flooded Dublin with cannabis - continued, “I wouldn’t waste it on any of them - but if I had ten wishes I’d wish that none of that trouble happened. And I mean just that feud - [all] the feuds in the whole of Ireland.”
Gilligan – charged but acquitted of the infamous murder of crime reporter Veronica Guerin in south west Dublin in June 1996 but caged for 17 years for importing cannabis - was asked if he felt any responsibility that his gang carried out the murder of Veronica, he replied: “They weren’t my gang. I hadn’t got a gang. I supplied them with cannabis. I said “I’ll supply you so many kilos and there’s [a list of] your buyers. If you want to get other buyers, get them. I asked Brian [Meehan, the only man ever jailed for the murder of Ms Guerin] to do the deliveries for the people I knew. So that’s all he was.”
When asked if he feels any guilt, he replied: “No, I don’t feel anything. I know the right things to say, “I was devastated”....I was this, I was that. I don’t feel that. I wasn’t gutted. I wasn’t gutted when many people got whacked. I wasn’t gutted when Martin Cahill got wacked.
When it was put to him that Veronica Guerin was an innocent woman and mother who was shot dead in the prime of her life, he said “I don’t not show respect for that. That was a disgraceful thing to happen. One million percent, it shouldn’t have happened to her.”
In the interview, Gilligan also mentioned the possibility he could have a love child in New Zealand.
He said “Another seaman said, “Where you on the New Zealand Star and you were nicknamed Chocolate? Because I was eating chocolate. He said “You have a kid in New Zealand.” I don’t know the truth. I never enquired,” said Gilligan.
He explained when the boat he was on docked in New Zealand, there were women on the quay wall and “they came up the gangway onto the boat and picked out which seaman they wanted to be with. So, it wasn’t like I met a girl somewhere respectable.”
When asked if he thinks Ireland is more dangerous than Spain and the rest of Europe, Gilligan said he think’s Ireland “has gone mad.”
“Ireland’s gone mad - and all the young lads in Ireland. It’s a terrible shame because there’s no future in their lives with the things that they’re doing. They’re all going to end up in prison.
“And I always said, if you go to prison, make sure you’re going to prison because you were robbing something decent.
“But don’t be going to prison because you want to hit a fella with a bar or a hatchet, or knife him,” said Gilligan.
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