Limerick Shooting: From coal to drugs, Keane’s business empires

For decades Christy Keane’s family ran a sizeable coal delivery business from their base in St Mary’s Park, better known as the Island Field. He soon discovered his delivery business was an ideal cover to get into drugs.

It was far more lucrative than coal, and involved less harder and dirtier work.

One of his key enforcers in the 1990s was Eddie Ryan, who had built up a reputation of being a person not to be crossed. However, he and Christy Keane had a falling out over a schoolyard row involving a number of girls.

In November 2000, he had gone to a secondary school in Shelbourne Road to collect his then 16-year-old son, Liam — who later, as a young man, was to earn national notoriety.

As Christy Keane sat in his car waiting for his son, Eddie Ryan approached and pulled out a handgun. He planned to shoot Mr Keane but the gun jammed.

His brother Kieran Keane and another associate Philip Collopy decided to exact revenge and shot Mr Ryan dead as he sat in the Moose Bar a few days later. No one was ever convicted of the murder.

It was, however, the spark which ignited a feud which was continued for over 10 years and resulted in up to 20 murders, and scores of people being sent to jail for long sentences.

Christy Keane was arrested on August 21, 2001, when three young detectives, Ronan McDonagh and Brian Sugrue (both now inspectors in Limerick) along with Eamonn Curley (now a detective sergeant in Athlone, Co Westmeath) did a stakeout near Mr Keane’s home in the Island Field.

They caught him red-handed moving a coal bag which contained cannabis, worth nearly €240,000.

Further searches uncovered more cannabis worth about €750,000. In 2002, Mr Keane received a sentence at Limerick Circuit Court of 10 years imprisonment for possessing the €250,000 haul of cannabis, for sale or supply.

During his time in jail, his brother Kieran Keane and his nephew Owen Treacy were abducted in 2003 in an elaborate plan by associates of the late Mr Ryan.

Christy Keane, Singland Gardens, Ballysimon, Limerick, appearing at Limerick Circuit Court on drugs charges.

They were brought to an isolated road in Drombana on the outskirts of the city and Mr Keane was shot dead. The gun then jammed and Mr Treacy was stabbed 17 times and left for dead.

He survived and his evidence led to the five men who abducted them being jailed for life for the murder of Mr Keane.

Philip Collopy, who along with Kieran Keane had murdered Eddie Ryan, died in March 2009 when he accidentally shot himself in the head with a Glock handgun.

Christy Keane’s son Liam, meanwhile, caused public outrage in November 2003 when he gave the V-finger sign to photographers as he walked free from the Central Criminal Court in Dublin where he had been on trial for the murder of shop worker Eric Leamy.

The prosecution’s case had been based on alleged witnesses to a stabbing incident but, in evidence, certain witnesses did not back up their original statements to gardaí. The trial collapsed.

The trial judge, Mr Justice Paul Carney later described what he termed the ‘collective amnesia’ of witness after witness.

Garda Supt Derek Smart speaking at a press conference outside Henry St Garda station where he briefed journalists.

In a subsequent development, legislation was introduced which currently permits into evidence the admission of statements given to gardaí even if the person who provided that statement refused to back it up in the witness box.

Liam Keane is serving a 10-year sentence for a gun offence. His father, since being released in 2010, has maintained a low profile.

However, younger crime gangs have emerged in the city, some with links to those involved in the original feud, and are a source of major concern to gardaí.

A particular crime gang and another rival crime gang in Moyross, linked to ‘Fat John’ McCarthy, 44, who is serving 14 years for a drugs conviction, have been involved in a number of violent incidents since last December.