{"id":295521,"date":"2026-02-13T05:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T05:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/295521\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T05:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T05:58:07","slug":"gerry-hutch-says-karma-will-follow-jonathan-dowdall-former-sinn-fein-cllr-who-testified-against-him-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/295521\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerry Hutch says \u2018karma\u2019 will follow Jonathan Dowdall, former Sinn F\u00e9in cllr who testified against him \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran criminal Gerry Hutch<\/a>, known as The Monk, has said \u201ckarma\u201d will follow former Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> councillor Jonathan Dowdall<\/a>, who gave evidence against him when he was charged with murder three years ago. But he said he \u201ccertainly\u201d has no plans to harm Dowdall.<\/p>\n

Hutch also confirmed he will contest the upcoming byelection in the Dublin Central constituency<\/a> just over a year after getting close to taking a seat there at the general election.<\/p>\n

Hutch confirmed his plans while meeting members of the media during a press event for actor Rex Ryan\u2019s play, The Monk, which is based on Hutch\u2019s life and is about to open at the Ambassador Theatre, Dublin.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald<\/a> has been the star performer in the constituency, and the byelection is seen as her party\u2019s to lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is what it is. Win, lose or draw,\u201d Hutch (62) said when asked about the strong opposition likely to come from Sinn F\u00e9in, which has yet to select a candidate.<\/p>\n

Hutch was closely associated with Dowdall, who is also from the north inner city. Dowdall was jailed for assisting the Hutch gang attack at the Regency Hotel<\/a>, north Dublin, in 2016 which was part of the Kinahan-Hutch feud and claimed the life of David Byrne.<\/p>\n

When Hutch was put on trial for the murder of Kinahan associate Byrne, he was acquitted in 2023<\/a> by the Special Criminal Court despite Dowdall sensationally opting to give evidence against him. However, the court described Hutch as the leader of the Hutch family and said the evidence in the case suggested he had control of the guns from the attack in the period after it.<\/p>\n

When asked about Dowdall (who was freed from prison last year to enter the witness protection programme), Hutch said he did not want to comment about whether it would be safe for him to come back to Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d know. Is it safe? Are you going to do anything to him? I\u2019m certainly not, I think karma will do that itself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Gerry Hutch\u2019s mask slips again as ego drives newest D\u00e1il bidOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Hutch secured more than 2,000 first-preference votes<\/a> in the general election in November 2024, shocking political observers. Marie Sherlock (Labour) eventually surged past him on transfers to take the seat.<\/p>\n

Since the general election he has contacted political scientists to learn more about the electoral system and the finer points of proportional representation, including maximising transfers.<\/p>\n

While he is being pursued by the Criminal Assets Bureau<\/a> at present for almost \u20ac800,000 (the amount the bureau alleges he owes in unpaid taxes), a lacuna in the law means Hutch would not be blocked from taking up a seat if he were elected. <\/p>\n

The Standards in Public Office Act 2001 introduced a tax clearance requirement for members of the D\u00e1il. Due to the tax demand, Hutch would not be in a position to secure a tax clearance certificate from the Revenue Commissioners.<\/p>\n

However, despite the legislation, a newly elected TD\u2019s inability to produce a tax clearance would not block them taking their seat. Such a TD could be suspended from the D\u00e1il in a members\u2019 vote, but they would still remain a TD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran criminal Gerry Hutch, known as The Monk, has said \u201ckarma\u201d will follow former Sinn F\u00e9in councillor Jonathan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21454,15049,70422,61,60,70420,3658,43,3415],"class_list":{"0":"post-295521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-criminal-assets-bureau","9":"tag-dail-eireann","10":"tag-gerry-hutch","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-jonathan-dowdall","14":"tag-mary-lou-mcdonald","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-sinn-fein"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}