By Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Gerard Hutch, named in a court case last year as the head of a well-known crime family in Ireland, narrowly missed out on a seat in Ireland’s parliament on Sunday despite a surge of support in deprived areas of the Dublin Central constituency.
Hutch, better known as “The Monk”, finished in fifth place of a four-seat constituency. He had been widely seen as favourite to take the final seat earlier on Sunday before a late surge by Labour Party rival Marie Sherlock.
Hutch was arrested in Spain as part of an international investigation into money laundering by the Hutch Organised Crime Group, but was released in early November on bail, Irish state broadcaster RTE reported.
He was followed by a huge scrum of journalists when he briefly attended the count centre on Sunday and spoke to Sherlock. He jogged out of the centre, surrounded by security.
Ahead of the vote Hutch said he was running because he did not think the deprived inner-city community where he grew up was properly represented. Hutch has for years donated to sports clubs in the area.
Gary Gannon, who also took a seat, said he saw Hutch’s support as a protest vote.
“Some parts of that community, actually significant parts, have been left behind by all the catastrophes of housing and the ability to access healthcare. That leaves a mark,” he said.
Film director Jim Sheridan, who is making a documentary about Hutch, agreed, telling journalists Hutch’s “shocking” level of support was down to anger at “years and years of drugs and … nothing happening in that community.”
The U.S. State Department said in 2022 that the Hutch drug trafficking gang was locked in a turf war with the Kinehan crime group, also based in Dublin, that resulted in 18 murders in the aftermath of a 2016 killing at a Dublin hotel.
The Hutch gang was named by the State Department when it offered a $5 million reward for help in arresting leaders of the Kinehan gang suspected of drug trafficking.
Gerard Hutch was identified as head of the Hutch family by an Irish court last year when he was acquitted of involvement in the 2016 murder.
Hutch said in a recent podcast interview that he had a number of convictions for robbery as a younger man. He has not been convicted of any other crime more recently and in a rare 2008 interview with national broadcaster RTE, he denied being the leader of a crime gang.
Asked by reporters if he might run again, Hutch said, “We’ll consider it.”
(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Christina Fincher)
