‘The Monk’ is due to fly into Dublin on Monday from Spain to lodge electoral papers for Dail bid
‘The Monk’ is due to fly into Dublin on Monday from his home in Lanzarote and will lodge his electoral papers to put himself forward to run in the Dublin Central constituency.
“I am running,” he confirmed last night. “I will be a candidate in Dublin Central and I will be the people’s choice. They have asked me to run, so I am running.”
Hutch has just been released on €100,000 bail from a Lanzarote prison after being arrested as part of a money-laundering investigation. The veteran criminal remains under investigation there, while the Hutch Organised Crime Gang (OCG) is a target of a number of different Garda units here.
However ‘The Monk’, seen as the patriarch of the Hutch OCG, has had no convictions for crime since the 1980s and was acquitted of the Regency Hotel murder of David Byrne by the Special Criminal Court last year.
Now, he is planning to run a social media campaign due to ongoing concerns over his security and is expected to issue regular video and poster updates on his run for the Dáil.
Poster calling for election of Gerry Hutch being distributed on social media
He is also hoping to do some door-to-door canvassing around his area, but those working on his behalf are already campaigning online to encourage people to register to vote in the constituency. The deadline to register is Tuesday.
His main objective will be social deprivation in the north inner city, where he was born and grew up. His campaign headquarters has been identified as the Corinthians Boxing Club – a building bought by ‘The Monk’ and which he now rents to the club for €1 per year on a 99-year lease.
Hutch has been planning his Dáil run for months and has assembled a secretive campaign team who have identified prospective voters.
Apart from the support he enjoys within the north inner city, he is also likely to mop up some of the votes that Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald is expected to lose, along with other ‘anti-establishment’ votes.
Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch. Photo: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie
The other high-profile politicians standing in the area include Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe, Gary Gannon of the Social Democrats and the Green party’s Neasa Hourigan.
Support for Hutch is unlikely to spread widely into areas like Cabra and Phibsboro and his grassroots will be around his native north inner city.
Hutch grew up in Foley Street and later Liberty House. As an adult he rose to criminal prominence when he was suspected of organising and carrying out two of the biggest armed robberies in the history of the State; the Marino Mart and the Brinks Allied. After the robberies he moved to Clontarf, north of the city, raising his family there.
During the Hutch-Kinahan feud he lost his brother Eddie, nephews Gary, Gareth and Derek and friends Noel ‘Duck Egg’ Kirwan and Noel ‘Kingsize’ Duggan to Kinahan assassins. With a €1 million bounty on his own head, he remained on the move across Europe and into Asia.
He was arrested in Spain and returned to Dublin to face a murder charge in relation to the shooting of Byrne at the Regency Hotel. He spent 18 months in custody but pleaded not guilty. At the end of a lengthy trial he was acquitted and walked free from the Special Criminal Court to huge support from the public.
Hutch is likely to outline his manifesto in coming days.