Showpiece of drug lord’s vulgar wealth for sale expecting to reach in excess of €500,000

It’s fitting that the only remnant of John Gilligan’s empire at his equestrian centre in Kildare is a calendar from 1996.

It was a year that marked both the zenith of his monstrous drugs empire and its nadir.

By June of 1996 his colossal drugs business had imported €55m worth of cannabis, amassing him around €20m in profits. All that in the space of just 30 months, after he was released from Portlaoise Prison where he had joined forces with fellow criminal Brian Meehan.

But on Jun 26, his soaring ego brought it all crashing down, when members of his gang, led by Meehan, shot dead journalist Veronica Guerin. A massive Garda response led to the collapse of his drugs business and the prosecution of key members of his outfit, including a 20-year term on Gilligan himself for drugs trafficking.

The murder also gave birth to the Criminal Assets Bureau, which within four months, in Nov 1996, secured a court order freezing the Jessbrook equestrian centre in north Kildare.

This was to be the showpiece of Gilligan’s vulgar wealth, where he and his wife, Geraldine, who has no criminal convictions, would ingratiate themselves into the moneyed, horsey set.

He had started buying up land at Mucklon, near Enfield, in the late 1980s, starting with a bungalow and progressing to the expanses of land nearby.

During 1994 and 1996, as he was earning profits of €700,000, on average, every month, Gilligan carved out his empire with the purchase of almost 90 acres, in three plots.

Pride of place was his monstrous mausoleum, a sprawling equestrian centre — in reality a massive, ugly industrial warehouse — in addition to stables for 44 horses, a three-bed apartment complex, an outdoor arena and 20 acres of surrounding land.

In the region of €1.5m was spent in the purchase and development of the site, including €440,000 on steel alone. By the time of the murder, gardaí believed the centre was six-to-eight months short of being completed.

During the Celtic Tiger the estate reached a valuation of circa €5m.

After a mammoth legal battle, lasting almost 17 years, CAB secured a final Supreme Court ruling last November directing the sale of Jessbrook. And yesterday, the site went on sale, expecting to reach in excess of €500,000.

A tour of the now-tattered and unloved facility revealed the sheer size of the centre. The main performance arena is 80 metres long and 40 metres wide, not including the two-tiered seating area. Outside are two stables, as well as a three-bed apartment, and Gilligan’s former office, empty save for the aforementioned calendar.

Gilligan walks free from Portlaoise Prison in the middle of next month, having served his time for drugs trafficking. Although, at 61 a free man, CAB is not finished with him yet. Late next year or in 2015, the Supreme Court will decide the future of Geraldine’s home and three other family properties.

While he has his hidden wealth abroad to fall back on, Gilligan’s Irish empire will, just like his beloved Jessbrook, be home to only bird droppings.