Erm, this wasn’t what I had planned to do next (I’m writing on the latest crisis of confidence inside the DUP), but it bears repeating here. Concerning Jonathan Dowdall, who was briefly an acolyte of no less a person than Mary Lou…
…in the Special Criminal Court this morning he was charged with a single count of the murder of David Byrne at the hotel on the Swords Road, Drumcondra, on February 5, 2016.
Det Gda Paul Darley, of Ballymun Garda Station, gave evidence of the arrest, charge and caution of the accused.
He said he met Mr Dowdall in the holding cell of the court at 10.35am this morning and handed him a true copy of the charge sheet.
Mr Dowdall resigned as a councillor for health reasons just months after being elected in 2014. In April 2018 he was convicted of water boarding (but later had his sentence cut). Mary Lou later tried to palm him off on a local political rival.
As RTÉ reports, “the murder escalated an ongoing feud between the Kinahans and the Hutch Organised Crime Group, which has so far led to 18 murders.” The murder also occurred at the start of the 2016 general election.
Sinn Féin (along with others), then as now, is a strong advocate for the abolition of the Special Criminal Court…
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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