The Nolans

David Nolan (29), a father of five, was jailed for 4 years by Judge Carroll Moran on 4 June after pleading guilty to threatening to kill a woman in Southill back in October 2006. Nolan arrived at the woman’s house at Maigue Way, waving a samurai sword telling her "I'll kill you and I'll kill your son", and, furthermore, kill her other son "Michael Campbell Mc style in a field".  Nolan broke the woman’s front window with his sword. A month after this, the O’Donoghue’s house was burnt out, though it was not suggested Nolan was involved.

Nolan also pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of heroin for sale or supply at a house in Ardbracken, Kilteragh, at 10pm on January 16, 2009. He was found with 40 small bags of heroin in his pocket, claiming he had to deal drug because of his escalating debts.

Nolan was confident of a custodial sentence from the Judge, and arrived in court with his bags packed. He was sentenced to 4 years for the heroin possession and a concurrent 3 years for threatening to kill.

David Nolan has 3 previous convictions for dealing heroin. He was caught red handed in a car on Hartstonge Street with €400 worth of heroin in February 2007. He was also found to be driving under the influence of cannabis and cocaine on that occasion.  In October 2007, Nolan was caught again, with €500 worth of heroin in a house at Lawn Way, Carew Park. Nolan was also up on charges of assaulting a woman, Linda Casey, outside her home in O’Malley Park, Southill in August 2007, but she developed amnesia in the stand during the trial in December 2007and that charge was struck out. Nolan, with 33 previous convictions, was sentenced to 8 months imprisonment.

Seven months later, Linda Casey herself was arrested in a downstairs bedroom of a house in Brú Na Gruadáin, Castletroy where she was busy bagging some €1,500 worth of heroin. Ms. Casey (43), with 58 previous convictions, was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment by Judge Tom O’Donnell.

David Nolan’s 2006 threat to Ms. O’Donoghue’s son, that he would killer her son "Michael Campbell Mc style in a field" had particular resonance as his relative, Andrew Nolan, is still the only person convicted in relation to the 2003 murder of Michael Campbell McNamara.

Andrew Nolan (29), originally charged with withholding information, later pleaded guilty in court to “engaging in conduct causing a substantial risk of death or serious harm”. He admitted his role in luring Michael Campbell McNamara to Southill to his death back in October 2003, telling the victim he had a sawn-off shotgun for sale.

Andrew Nolan

Campbell McNamara's body was later found in Barry’s Field with his hands and feet bound. He had been stabbed ten times and shot twice. His car had been seen near the Nolan’s home on Ashe Avenue, Carew Park, and was later found burnt out in Fedamore, County Limerick.


Andrew Nolan, a former baker and a father of 3, had 27 prior convictions. His early guilty plea was taken into account and Judge Carroll Moran sentenced him to four years in prison at Limerick Circuit Court.

Another relative, also David Nolan (45), and at the same Carew Park address as Andrew, was convicted in 2007 for possession of a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol and ammunition for two other pistols at a house in Star Court, Carew Park. Gardaí found a handgun in a rubbish bag and ammunition in the hot press when they searched the house, in November 2005. This David Nolan was sentenced to 2 years by Judge Moran.

The Ryans (Part 2)

On Thursday, 23 January 2003, Eddie Ryan (20) and his younger brother, Kieran (19) became the centre of national attention.

That afternoon, Kieran Ryan was attacked outside Limerick Courthouse, where he was on trial for serious assault charges and two counts of being in possession of a knife on March 5th, 2002 in Limerick City centre. That case collapsed after the main witness and victim, Liam Keane, waivered in the witness stand, becoming unable to identify exactly who had stabbed him in the back, despite previous statements to Gardaí insisting it was Kieran Ryan.  Judge Carroll Moran told the court he had "no alternative" but to direct the jury to find the accused not guilty, remarking that, "It is a very sorry state of affairs that this should happen and if this is going to persist we are going to live in a state of social chaos and anarchy."

Later the day, at around 10:30pm, the Ryan brothers were strolling down Moylish Avenue, Ballynanty, with their friend Christopher 'Smokie' Costello, when a black car pulled up just 30 yards from Costello’s home. Two masked men, armed with a shotgun and a handgun, jumped out and bundled the Ryans into the car.  Costello later told Gardaí he had struggled free and escaped despite being shot at. After raising the alarm, he was briefly admitted to hospital. 

Eddie Junior and Kieran Ryan in 2003

A large search began for the Ryan brothers, involving a Garda helicopter, an airplane, the Garda Sub-Aqua Unit and over 100 soldiers from Sarsfield Barracks, Limerick and Kickham Barracks, Clonmel. Soon, the search focussed on wasteland in and around Moyross and around Cratloe, County Clare, as it became increasingly likely the Ryan brothers may have been killed and dumped in a remote location. 

Journalists became frequent visitors to the Ryan family home on Hogan Avenue, Kileely and Mary Ryan appeared on national television calling for the return of her children. She was quoted as saying to those who took her children, "The devil is in you. You are evil. May a widow's curse be on you for the rest of your life."

Christopher ‘Smokie’ Costello, who described himself as the ‘best friend’ of the brothers told the press that he was "lucky to be alive. By rights I should be dead." He added, “I won't stop till I find them."

Pleas for the safe return of the brothers were made by the then Justice Minister, Michael McDowell, the then Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray, Junior Minister Willie O’Dea and Alderman Michael Kelly.

Kieran Ryan’s 17 year old partner, Edel O’Neill told one newspaper, on Monday the 27th, of her fear that Kieran would never see his daughter, Kelsey, again ("He got the name from a doll's box he saw somewhere", she added).

That same day, there was a fight outside the city’s courthouse. Inside the Circuit Court, as details of an attack with an AK-47 on ‘Fat’ John McCarthy, cousin of the Ryans, was discussed,  a brawl broke out among 20 people from both sides of the feud outside, with Gardaí arresting 7.

By Tuesday the 28th of January, Limerick Chief Superintendent Gerry Kelly insisted the search for the brothers would continue, but admitted that it was increasingly likely they were dead.

However, at 3am, January 30, 2003, Eddie Ryan, and his brother Kieran walked into Portlaoise Garda Station, some 70 miles from Limerick, and told Gardaí, "We're the boys who were abducted." Apparently the two were hooded the whole week they were abducted, though one newspaper noted that they still managed to shave during their ordeal.  Gardaí brought them to Henry Street Garda Station where their mother waited for them. Kieran Ryan to the media, "I'm just happy to be alive and to see my whole family, especially my baby daughter." When pressed for details he added,  "I got threatened and I'm not going to talk to no-one about it. I've been threatened not to talk."

It was originally thought that the Keane-Collopy gang had taken the two boys and, since kidnapping isn’t a typical feature in the Limerick feuds, it was reasonably assumed by Gardaí and others that they were killed and dumped.

It is now commonly accepted that the McCarthy-Dundons ‘kidnapped’ the Ryan brothers, perhaps offering them to the Keane-Collopy gang for a price of €50,000 or more.  The Dundons then tried to lure Kieran Keane and Philip Collopy to a house in Garyowen, but Owen Treacy arrived with Keane instead of Collopy.  Thinking they were on their way to execute the Ryans, Keane and Treacy travelled willingly with members of the McCarthy-Dundon gang out to the remote area of Drumbanna (this point was never emphasised at the subsequent trial or appeal as it was in no ones interests to mention it!).  Here, Keane was shot dead, and, when the gun jammed, Treacy was stabbed 17 times and, mistakenly, left for dead.

 Kieran Keane

One of the group of five involved in killing Kieran Keane and stabbing Owen Treacy was Christopher ‘Smokie’ Costelloe, best friend of the Ryan brothers.  Costello was credited as one of the two men who stabbed Owen Treacy up to 17 times.  In court, James McCarthy and Christopher Costello asserted they were both watching a football match between Liverpool and Arsenal in a house at 66, College Park in Corbally. That match, at Anfield, was a 2-2 draw, with Heskey scoring a 90th minute equaliser. Charged with murder in June 2003, Costello, was given a life sentence for killing Kieran Keane, 7 years for false imprisonment and 12 years for the attempted murder of Owen Treacy.

 Christopher 'Smokie' Costello

After losing an appeal in the Court of Criminal Appeal in July 2007, Costello and his four co-accused were this week denied permission to bring the case to the Supreme Court.

The Ryan brothers were ‘released’ just 6 hours after Kieran Keane was murdered, returning home for a celebration.  Mary Ryan, who was once headbutted by Kieran Keane, told journalists , “Nothing will compensate you for your children, and I want to thank everyone who went out searching.” Her brother-in-law, John Ryan, referring to the Keanes, added, “If they want to call it quits then we'll call it quits. If they don't then that's they're own problem, we don't want any more trouble…It's a deal gone wrong for the other crowd. It's their own fault."

Six months later, John Ryan died after being shot four times outside a house in Thomondgate.

Shane Mason

Shane Mason appeared in court via video link from Limerick Prison on Thursday, 3 June last. Mason was originally charged at a special sitting of Limerick District Court on Wednesday evening, 26 May with possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.  The charges relate to the attempt on Daniel Phillips’ life on Monday evening, 24 May last.  Philips (20), from Crecora Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston remains in hospital in Cork University Hospital after receiving gunshot wounds to the head and chest in St. John’s Square as he sat in a car with 2 other men. After firing 7 shots, the gunman made his escape on a bicycle.

Daniel Phillips

Mason was arrested within an hour or two of the shooting. Another man and a woman were also arrested but later released. The Limerick Leader noted the shooting on Daniel Phillips was on Mason’s 28th birthday.

Shane Mason, originally from Sean Heuston Place, has lived in Moyross in recent times. A cousin of Collopys, he’s been attacked twice in recent months by northside criminals.

On Friday night, 23 January last, Mason was shot on Kileely Road at about 10:15, when crowds were still leaving the Munster v. Northampton final pool game in the Heineken Cup. Mason, who was a passenger in a stationary car, received pellet wounds in the shoulder and head after two shots were fired from a shotgun by a gunman on foot. The female driver, apparently Mason’s girlfriend, drove the car to Hasset’s Cross where Gardaí were still on match duty. Mason’s injuries weren’t life threatening.

The next attempt on Shane Mason’s life was on 10 May. At around 11 that night, in Cathedral Place, a man in the rear of a blue carolla, fitted with a stolen taxi roof sign, fired once at Mason, missing him. The car was found burned out some time later in Patrickswell. Three men were arrested but not charged.

Gardaí advised Mason on his personal security but its now alleged he took matters into his own hands.

Shane Mason, who recently celebrated his birthday

Mason would not be particularly popular with local Gardaí. On 9 July 2004, Mason assaulted a Guard outside Limerick City Courthouse as the Guard tried to arrest him.  A year later Judge Carroll Moran jailed Mason for 2 years for that offence and for escaping custody on the same date.

In October 2004, David Heighton, of Colmcille Street, St. Mary’s Park, initially identified Shane Mason as the gunman who inflicted serious injuries on his face and chest.  The shooting had the hallmarks of another internal dispute within the greater Collopy-Keane gang. On 9 October 2004, in the early hours of a Wednesday morning, Heighton was shot near the shops on St. Ita’s Street, St. Mary’s Park, after an earlier altercation with a man.  His injuries resulted in him becoming blind in one eye and losing a section of an ear.  He had some 60 shotgun pellets removed from the side of his head and needed reconstructive surgery on his face. While Heighton’s initial statements to Guards unambiguously fingered Mason as the shooter, in court he insisted he wasn’t so sure.  Under new legislation (the Criminal Justice Act, 2006), the State was allowed use Heighton’s earlier statements to Gardaí as evidence. Nonetheless, Mason was found not guilty by a unanimous vote of the jury.

The legislation that allowed Heighton’s original Garda statements insisting Mason shot him back in 2004 to be used in Mason's 2007 trial was based on legislation introduced in the wake of the collapse of Liam Keane’s trial for the killing of Eric Leamy in 2003, where widespread intimidation and ‘collective amnesia’ in the witness stand was suggested by the judge

Liam Keane

Heighton was not unfamiliar to Gardaí prior to his shooting.  Aged 19, back in 1997, he was arrested for joyriding after a student Garda, John Keating tried to stop the stolen car Heighton was in on the Hyde Road, Prospect. The student Garda suffered a broken hip and collar bones. The other Guard on patrol was beaten by a mob as he attempted to arrest the suspects. Heighton was charged with taking a car without consent and driving without insurance.

In June 2004, just a few months before he was shot, Heighton was arrested after being caught drunk on the back of a crashed stolen motorbike on the Old Cork Road in the early hours with his friend, Liam Keane.

Shane Mason was remanded in custody by Judge Tom O'Donnell until 17 June.

The Ryans (Part 1)

Brothers Eddie (27) and Kieran Ryan (26) were charged with possession of a 9mm Browning semi-automatic pistol and 15 rounds of ammunition at Carrigmartin, Ballyneety, Co Limerick, on 26 May, contrary to section 27(a) of the Firearms Act, 1964.  Also charged was John Collins (18) from 23 Monabraher Road, Ballynanty. The Ryan brothers, from Hogan Avenue, Kileely were only stopped by Gardaí from the Emergency Response Unit after their Toyota Avensis was rammed out in Ballyneety.  There is some speculation that they were out to avenge the recent shooting of Daniel Phillips.

While the Ryan brothers never really went away, their profile has been lower in recent years.

It’s nearly 10 years, in November 2000, when their father, Eddie Senior, was gunned down in the Moose Bar by the Keane-Collopy gang – specifically by Kieran Keane and Philip Collopy. Kieran Ryan, then just 17, was in the bar’s bathroom when the gunmen came into the Moose Bar and shot his father, Eddie Ryan Senior. Eddie’s wife, Mary, was 7 weeks pregnant at the time.

Eddie Ryan Senior

Eddie Senior had a long record of his own, from appearing in court on burglary charges when he was just 13, to being arrested and charged with murder when he was just 17, back in 1977. By then he had already some 12 previous convictions.

Eddie Senior then lived in Cregan Avenue, Kileely, just one road over from the Ryan familiy’s current home on Hogan Avenue.  On a Sunday night, 29 May 1977, when Ryan and a friend were going to a dance in a city centre hotel, they came across Christopher Jackson (24), from Raheen Square, Ballinacurra Weston. 

Jackson stood outside Cruises Hotel on Patrick’s Street. After a brief exchange ("I heard you were looking for me" "I wasn't" "There's rumours going round that you were" "I wasn't", etc.), Jackson punched Ryan in the face. Ryan ran off towards Roches Stores, promising Jackson he wouldn’t forget that.  Jackson followed, saying to his friend, "I'll be back in a minute. I want to give this fellow something to think about". Jackson apparently pulled a razor on Ryan, while Ryan pulled out a knife, but kept backing off towards Sarsfield Bridge.  He turned up Henry Street, then up Bedford Row, by the Savoy Theatre.  Outside the Grand Central cinema, Jackson called to Eddie Ryan, saying they should just forget about fighting and shake on it.  As they went to shake hands, Jackson swiped at Ryan but missed.  Ryan lunged at him, stabbing him in the face. The fight moved back down towards the Savoy.  Jackson cut Ryan’s fingers but Ryan gave him a “dig or two with the knife”, “somewhere on the front of his body”, perforating Jackson’s heart twice. As Ryan ran away, Jackson fell back against a parked car before collapsing to the ground.

The old Savoy, closed in 1974, demolished 1988

 One passer-by, Dermot Cronin, later recounted at the trial how he had tried to phone the Guards as the two fought but had run to 3 different phone boxes before finding one that worked.

Gardaí later found blood stains for 20 yards leading to the Bedford Flats, as well as blood on the walls and windows of the outside of the lower flats themselves. The State pathologist, Professor John Harbison, found 7 stab wounds on Jackson, including the two that penetrated his heart, causing death by internal haemorrhaging.

Gardaí located Ryan at his sister’s house in the early hours of the following morning.  The bloodied jacket, with the knife in the pocket, were downstairs on the washing machine, though Ryan told the arresting officer, Inspector Jeremiah O’Sullivan, he had never seen them before.  Ryan was brought in for questioning and, at 8 in the morning, a ‘cool and relaxed’ Ryan admitted to Gardaí he had stabbed Jackson.  Garda John Quinn,who had seen Ryan flee the scene, also picked him in an identity parade.

Eddie Ryan, described in court as ‘easily led’, was originally charged with murder, but was found not guilty by a jury after just 3 hours of deliberation.  Ryan did, however, plead guilty to manslaughter.  His barrister, a Limerick man, Kevin O’Higgins (now a judge in the European Court of Justice), arguing before sentencing, insisted that Ryan was ‘a disadvantaged person, with no specific educational attainments, nor had he any skills that would enable him to obtain employment, even if employment were available in Limerick City.’

Justice Sean Glennon, at the Dublin Central Criminal Court, sentenced Ryan to five years penal servitude with no leave to appeal.