State solicitor warns that gang warfare could easily restart in Limerick City
In an exclusive interview with the Irish Examiner ahead of his retirement, Limerick State Solicitor Michael Murray said there is no room for complacency and gardaí need to be resourced to contain potential gang violence.
“There are still five or six very dangerous figures, some who were deeply involved in the feud and who are now involved in major crime at national and international level. They have the ability to still conduct their business. They are one remove from the action and very hard to catch,” he said.
An ‘undercurrent’ from the era of gang warfare still exists, he said.
“It wouldn’t take much of a spark to kick it off again. There is an absolute necessity for the gardaí [in Limerick] to have the resources and for vigilance.
"The gardaí in Limerick have proved that given the resources they are well able to combat whatever is out there and that continues to be the case,” he said.
Due to fears for his safety arising from the city’s murderous gang feud, gardaí had bullet-proof windows and steel doors placed in his office. He refers to the structurally reinforced office as ‘the panic room’.
Mr Murray was to the fore of the successful prosecutions which led to most of the leading gang members being handed down long sentences — many were put away for life.
As a result he became a hate figure among feared criminals and his private practice office where he works from on O’Connell Street was firebombed twice.
He was subjected to personal assaults, his car was frequently vandalised, and Garda patrol cars visited the area where he resides up to four times each night.
Mr Murray said in the 1990s there was a dramatic change in the kind of violence that engulfed the city.
“The situation became extremely serious. The level of savagery was hard to fathom with a greater willingness to take life. With each atrocity, it was followed by something that was more outrageous. There was no limit and there seemed to be no depths those gangs would not be prepared to go to maim, disfigure and kill.”
As he prepares to retire after 27 years later this week as state solicitor, Mr Murray said: “I did not sign up for what I got. But it has been an interesting experience, to say the least. I would like to think that I, along with others, played a part in the peaceful prosperity we now see today in my native city.”
