Murder begets murder as justice is served street-style

IT’S nearly two months since a gunman walked up to the driver’s window of Niall Mulvihill’s taxi and fired five shots from a handgun, killing the 57-year-old underworld fixer.

Despite an investigation involving gardaí and various specialised drug and other crime units, detectives have not yet even been able to establish a definite motive for the murder, never mind a suspect. Mulvihill kicked around so many underworld nooks that, as one investigator close to the case explained: “A motive, there are so many banging around.”

Even if a motive is established, Mulvihill’s murder was a classic underworld hit, clinically executed and forensically clean. Gardaí solve more than 80% of homicides, the fatal street and domestic assaults. Most of the rest are linked to the underworld.