Kinahan gangster Sean McGovern played central role in Noel Kirwan murder, gardai believe
Sean McGovern was arrested by Dubai authorities last week for the for the December 2016 murder of Noel Kirwan
Kinahan gangster Sean McGovern personally tracked one of the cartel’s murder targets – and was nearby when he was shot dead, gardaí believe.
The Irish Sunday Mirror has learned that officers believe McGovern played a central role in the murder of Noel Kirwan – a killing for which he is now facing extradition from his Dubai bolthole.
“He was central to this whole thing,” a source said last night – as gardaí wait for news on their request for him to be sent back from the UAE to Ireland to face trial for the December 2016 murder of innocent Mr Kirwan.
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McGovern – who has been described as a right hand man of cartel boss Daniel Kinahan, 47 – was arrested by Dubai authorities last week for the murder of Mr Kirwan, who was shot dead outside a house in Clondalkin, west Dublin.
That arrest came after international policing body Interpol issued a Red Notice – and arrest on sight request – on behalf of gardaí, who were given permission in early 2022 by the Director of Public Prosecutions to charge Crumlin native McGovern, 38, with Mr Kirwan’s murder.
Gardaí have now requested his extradition from Dubai – but McGovern is fighting that and is locked up in a Dubai prison while his lawyers battle the Irish authorities.
But sources say gardaí and the Department of Justice, whose civil servants worked in secret for several years to secure the arrest of McGovern, are confident the Dubai authorities will order that McGovern be sent back to Ireland to stand trial.
And sources have now told The Sunday Mirror that gardaí have strong evidence to put against McGovern at his trial – which is likely to be held at the non-jury Special Criminal Court.
Sources tell us that gardaí have phone evidence they believe places McGovern in Clondalkin around the time Mr Kirwan was shot dead. It’s understood his phone connected to phone masts in the area and gardaí have plotted his movements with the device on the day of the murder.
“His phone places him close to the scene,” a source said.
“The technology does not exist to place a phone at the exact location of the murder, but it can place him in the close area at the time.”
We have also established that gardaí have evidence that McGovern – who survived being shot during the February 2016 attack by the Hutch mob on the Regency Airport Hotel that cost the life of his pal and Kinahan ally David Byrne, 33 – was spotted by Garda detectives in Clondalkin the day before the murder.
Sources say gardai believe he was personally monitoring a tracking device that the Kinahan gang had placed on Mr Kirwans’s car as part of the plot to murder him
The gang used the tracker to follow Mr Kirwan – and used a laptop in an apartment in south Dublin as well as in Clondalkin to monitor it.
The Special Criminal Court has already heard Declan Brady – another key Kinahan lieutenant – was involved in attaching a tracker device to Mr Kirwan’s car.
But sources told us McGovern personally monitored the tracker, gardaí believe.
Brady, 56, is now serving a nine year jail term for facilitating the murder of Mr Kirwan.
He was charged that between October 20th, 2016 and December 22nd, 2016, within the State and with knowledge of the existence of a criminal organisation did participate in, or contribute by activity, or by being reckless as to whether such participation or contribution could facilitate the commission by a criminal organisation or any of its members of a serious offence, to wit: the murder of Christopher (aka Noel) Kirwan, contrary to Section 72 of the Criminal justice Act.
Brady, of Wolstan Abbey, Celbridge, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court in July 2019 to supervising a firearms arsenal including an assault rifle and thousands of rounds of ammunition that had been stashed in a Dublin business park. He was sentenced to 11.5 years in prison with the final year suspended for that offence.
While in prison in 2021, Brady – nicknamed Mr Nobody because of his low profile – pleaded guilty to laundering more than €400,000. He was sentenced to eight years and three months, with the final year suspended.
The nine-year jail term for facilitating the murder of Mr Kirwan will run concurrent to the other sentences.
Mr Kirwan was murdered simply because he was photographed in the presence of top Kinahan target Gerry “the Monk” Hutch, 61 at the funeral of the former crime boss’ brother Eddie, 58, in February 2016,
Eddie was shot dead by the Kinahan cartel just days after the Regency attack.
McGovern was shot in the stomach in that attack, but refused to cooperate with gardaí.
In April 2022, McGovern was one of seven leaders of the cartel sanctioned by America, including Daniel, Christy and Christopher Kinahan.
The US Treasury alleged McGovern was central to the Kinahan cartel.
It said: “Irish national Sean Gerard McGovern (Sean McGovern), currently based in Dubai, was designated for materially assisting, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Daniel Kinahan.
“McGovern is Daniel Kinahan’s advisor and closest confidant, and evidence indicates that all dealings go through Sean McGovern.
“Sean McGovern also has managed communications on behalf of Daniel Kinahan, and he sells multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine.”
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