A veteran figure in organised crime and father of two senior members of the Kinahan organised crime group has died in hospital in Dublin.
James Byrne was an associate of the armed robber and violent criminal, Martin Cahill, who was known as the General.
The 76-year-old was better known in recent years for his connections to and influence within the transnational drug dealing gang, the Kinahan organised crime group.
Known as ‘Jemmy’ or ‘Jaws’, James Byrne was the father of Liam Byrne, whom the High Court found to be the leader of the Byrne organised crime group, the Dublin branch of the Kinahan organisation.
Liam Byrne is currently facing firearms and related charges in the UK and has pleaded not guilty. He is unlikely to be released to attend his father’s funeral later this week.
James was also the father of David Byrne who was shot dead at the Regency Hotel in February 2016 in a murder that escalated the ongoing Hutch-Kinahan feud which has so far cost 18 lives.
James Byrne was a convicted criminal. In 1995 he was sentenced to three years after he pleaded guilty to possession of 138 forged and blank cheques. They had been stolen from businesses and offices, and during an armed robbery at a building society.
James Byrne’s last known paid employment was 50 years ago in 1974. However, despite the absence of a legitimate income, he was a wealthy man who regularly travelled abroad and owned his own home, mortgage-free, on Raleigh Square in Dublin.
He was for many years a target of the Criminal Assets Bureau. In November 2002, he agreed to repay over €43,000 in unemployment assistance he had claimed but was not entitled to.
He offered no explanation where the money came from but claimed a Rolex Oyster watch, valued at €35,200, that CAB seized from him, was a gift from a family member. He would not say who it was from.
Following a CAB tax assessment that he owed over €378,000, he settled the case in 2004 and paid the Revenue Commissioners €208,400. The payment included €22,000 in cash which had been seized at his home in 2001.
James Byrne lived with his wife in Dublin’s Raleigh Square, a cul de sac which became the stronghold of the Byrne organised crime group. His son Liam lived with his partner in a house across the road. CAB seized Liam’s home.
David Byrne also lived with his partner in a house diagonally across from his parents while senior gang member Sean McGovern lived two doors down from David. CAB also seized his home.
James Byrne had a number of properties and sold one to his daughter, Maria, for €100,000 in 2003. CAB said he sold another property, in 2015, for €80,000, though he claimed at the time he gifted it to Maria “for love and affection”.
The High Court found in 2018 that James Byrne along with his wife Sadie, daughter Maria and three others “while not members of the Byrne organised crime group, are closely related to its members and involved in money laundering”.
“They also have access to the proceeds of criminal activity carried out by the Byrne organised crime group.”
James Byrne was a patriarchal figure in organised crime in Dublin, respected and feared by fellow criminals. This emerged last year during the trial of Gerard Hutch, the man known as the Monk, who was found not guilty of the murder of David Byrne.
Byrne had been a long-time friend of Hutch. They socialised together and Byrne spent time with Hutch in Spain where Hutch has a house. They were photographed socialising in Lanzarote in 2014.
However, David’s murder two years later at the Regency Hotel led to both men falling out. The Kinahan gang blamed the Hutch gang for the murder and commenced a series of murderous retributions.
Gerard and other members of the Hutch family became targets for the Byrne and Kinahan organised crime groups, whether they were involved in organised crime or not.
Hutch’s nephews and his brother Eddie were shot dead in retaliation for the murder of David Byrne. The Kinahan organised crime group also made several unsuccessful attempts on the lives of other Hutch family and gang members, including Gerard and Patsy Hutch and James ‘Mago’ Gately.
Gerard Hutch was horrified by the indiscriminate nature of the feud murders. It not only affected him personally, it was also bad for business.
He was under garda surveillance at the time and gardaí recorded his conversations with former Sinn Féin councillor and convicted criminal Jonathan Dowdall.
The strategy of kill and be killed was in his words “not good”.
“There has to be another way,” he said. “Don’t be using a gun all the time. The heartbreak that’s left behind.”
Hutch also said that a “lot of people who have been in the game over the years have walked away”.
Hutch knew that to stop the killings both sides had to meet to agree a ceasefire. He needed a mediator who was respected in the criminal underworld and independent of both gangs so he tried to enlist the services of the so-called New IRA.
Jonathan Dowdall, who admitted facilitating the murder of David Byrne, drove Gerard Hutch to Northern Ireland in 2016 to meet members of the subversive organisation.
In the car Hutch told Dowdall that James ‘Jaws’ Byrne would need to be consulted and “on board” before any ceasefire could be agreed.
James Byrne and his wife attended the separate trials of Gerard Hutch and Patrick Hutch. Both Hutches had been accused of the murder of David Byrne.
Gerard Hutch was found not guilty at the Special Criminal Court. Patrick Hutch’s trial collapsed following the sudden and tragic death of the lead investigating officer Detective Superintendent Colm Fox.
Afterwards the Byrne family described it as “a disgrace”.
James Byrne died on Saturday in Tallaght Hospital. He had been ill for some time. He is survived by his wife and six children and is expected to be laid to rest on Friday.
