Violence to continue for ‘family honour’

A sister of feared Limerick criminal Gary Campion, who is serving life sentences for two murders in the city, said she believes “the violence in Limerick will continue” due to future generations of criminal families seeking to defend their “family’s honour”.

Celia Campion, 43, was speaking out after Steve Collins and his family left the country due to ongoing intimidation in the city.

Mr Collins had testified in a trial against the criminal Wayne Dundon for threatening to kill his nephew Ryan Lee in 2004, which saw Dundon imprisoned for seven years.

While the Collins family thought they had put this behind them, in 2009 his son Roy Collins was gunned down in the amusement arcade where he worked in Roxboro.

Ms Campion, whose brother Noel was also murdered in a gangland shooting in Thomondgate in 2007, wished to highlight that innocent siblings of people involved in crime are caught in this “crossfire”.

“The guards think crime is dying down, but it’s not. All those children of gangs will fight for their father’s honour to the last and are still fighting now. It’s just going to carry on. It’s mad,” she said.

“There is no thought for the siblings of these people who are not involved in any criminality. Our lives have been turned upside down, too.”

She sympathised with Mr Collins: “I know what they’re going through because my brother was shot, even though he was involved in crime. I’m still feeling that grief, and the grief of the Collinses and other families who have lost someone through drugs and violence. I feel sorry for all the families involved. The repercussions of their actions are being carried on to their nieces and nephews and it really hurts.”

The state solicitor in Limerick, Michael Murray, agreed that while gangs in Limerick are “losing their potency”, when a vacuum is created “there are loads of people willing to step into the void”.

Mr Murray said: “The drugs scene has changed the whole nature of crime in Ireland and that’s not going to go away. We can’t turn the tide back on that.

“People involved now in the drugs trade, particularly in Limerick, are less inclined now to get involved in mindless violence because it’s bad for business, so, to some extent, criminals have learned how to do business without upsetting anyone, which is a rather sinister way of looking at things, but the guards can deal with that, too.”

Ms Campion said while she “absolutely loves” her brother Gary, who has 40 convictions for a variety of offences, she has never been able to bring herself to visit him in prison. “I don’t know what made him go down the road he went down. I would like to ask him how he’s feeling.”

The Campion brothers, Gary, Noel and Willie, were once regarded as some of the most ruthless and violent siblings to have lived in Limerick.

Three years ago, Gary Campion, from O’Malley Park, Southill, was convicted of murdering Frankie Ryan, 21, in Moyross in 2006. He is also one of two men serving life sentences for the murder of innocent nightclub bouncer Brian Fitzgerald outside his home in Corbally in 2002, after Campion drove the getaway vehicle from the scene.

In May 2005, he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment when he threatened to have a Limerick prison officer “blown away” for €20,000.