The two are talking through their cell doors despite Dowdall being convicted of playing a role in the murder of David Byrne, Fat Freddie’s cousin, sources say.
Byrne died during the infamous attack at the Regency Hotel in 2016 when members of the Hutch faction tried to kill Cartel boss Daniel Kinahan
Last month, Thompson was transferred to the isolation wing in Limerick Prison where he is kept separate from other inmates.
He joined Dowdall – who is due to enter the witness protection progamme after giving evidence against Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch who was acquitted of the Regency murder – on the ‘D1’ landing.
Jonathan Dowdall
Inmates on the landing are effectively kept in isolation and don’t mix with each other.
Dowdall was convicted of giving the key of a Regency Hotel room to a member of the Hutch gang before Byrne’s murder.
Freddie Thompson
Fat Freddie was then one of the chief mourners at his cousin’s funeral, where he stood with Daniel Kinahan.
However, Thompson and Dowdall have been exchanging pleasantries in prison despite the circumstances, sources say.
Thompson got a life sentence in 2018 after at the Special Criminal Court for the murder of David Douglas in 2016.
He lost an appeal against the conviction last year in which he said CCTV footage of him should not have been admitted in court.
A Garda cordon outside the Regency Hotel in Dublin after the shooting in 2016
Dowdall got a four-year prison sentence in October 2022 for assisting a criminal gang after he and his father Patrick booked a hotel room used by one of the attackers.
He lost his appeal against his prison sentence for helping the Regency attackers, described by the Court of Appeal as “a Tier 1 criminal organisation.”
The three-judge panel described his four-year sentence as lenient taking into his account his previous offence in which he tortured a man.
However, it is expected that he will finish his sentence in the near future and enter the State’s witness programme.
Thompson will be staying behind bars for the foreseeable future is getting on with life in Limerick after his transfer last month.
The move from the Midlands Prison came after threats from a violent gang which is heavily involved in drug dealing in the prison, according to sources.
During a stint in Limerick Prison, the Crumlin man complained to the High Court about his conditions there in 2021.
Freddie Thompson and, inset, Jonathan Dowdall
News in 90 Seconds – September 21st
In that legal action he said as soon as he arrived in Limerick he was confined to a padded cell without his clothing or personal items and was isolated.
Another inmate on the D1 landing, Barbie Kardashian, is also expected to be released in the coming weeks. The 23-year-old transgender woman is nearing the end of a sentence imposed for threatening to rape, torture and murder her mother.
Gardaí told a sentence hearing in 2023 that they continue to have “grave concerns” about Ms Kardashian’s “motivation to carry out the threats”.
An officer said they believe Ms Kardashian continues to “pose a significant threat to those she has made threats towards, as well as to the wider public”.