Martin Cahill | |
|---|---|
 Cahill in the mid-1980s | |
| Born | (1949-05-23)23 May 1949 |
| Died | 18 August 1994(1994-08-18) (aged 45) |
| Cause of death | Assassination by theProvisional IRA |
| Other names | The General |
| Spouse | Frances Lawless |
| Children | 10 |
| Conviction | Armed robbery |
Martin Cahill (23 May 1949 – 18 August 1994)[1] was an Irishcrime boss fromDublin. He masterminded a series of burglaries and armed robberies. He was shot and killed while out on bail for kidnapping charges. TheProvisional Irish Republican Army took responsibility for Cahill's murder but no one was ever arrested or formally charged.
The media referred to him by thesobriquet "The General". The name was also used by the media to discuss Cahill's activities while avoiding legal problems with libel. Cahill took particular care to hide his face from the media — he would spread the fingers of one hand and cover his face.
He was born in a slum district just offMountjoy Square on Grenville Street inDublin's north inner city, the second of twelve surviving children of Patrick Cahill, a lighthouse-keeper, and Agnes Sheehan.[2] By the time he was in school, Martin and his older brother John were stealing food to supplement the family's income. In 1960, the family was moved to Captain's Road,Crumlin, as part of theDublin slumclearances. Martin was sent to aChristian Brothers School (CBS) on the same road where he lived but was soon playing truant and committing frequent burglaries with his brothers. At 15, he attempted to join theRoyal Navy, but was rejected, allegedly after offering to break into houses for them and because he had a criminal record.[3]
At age 16, he was convicted of two burglaries and sentenced to anindustrial school run by theOblates of Mary Immaculate atDaingean,County Offaly. After his release, he met and married Frances Lawless, a girl fromRathmines, where his family was living.
With his brothers, he continued to commit multiple burglaries in the affluent neighbourhoods nearby, at one point even robbing theGarda Síochána depot for confiscated firearms. The Cahill brothers soon turned to armed robbery, and by the early 1970s Gardaí at the Dublin Central Detective Unit (CDU) had identified the Cahill brothers as major criminals, when they teamed up with the notoriousDunne gang inCrumlin to rob security vans conveying cash from banks.
In 1978,Dublin Corporation began preparing to demolishHollyfield Buildings. Cahill, then serving a four-year suspended prison sentence, fought through the courts to prevent his neighbourhood's destruction. Even after the tenements were demolished, he continued to live in a pitched tent on the site. Finally,Lord Mayor of DublinBen Briscoe paid a visit to Cahill's tent and persuaded him to move into a new house in a more upscale district ofRathmines.[4]
Cahill and his gang stole gold and diamonds with a value of over IR£2 million (€2.55 million; €6.35 million in 2021, adjusted for inflation) from O'Connor's jewellers inHarolds Cross (1983); the jeweller was subsequently forced to close, with the loss of more than one hundred jobs. He was also involved in stealing some of the world's most valuable paintings fromRussborough House (1986)[5] andextorting restaurants and hot dog vendors in Dublin's nightclub district.[6]
Fearing the increasing role thatforensic science could play in detecting his robberies, in May 1982 Cahill had a bomb placed under the car of chief forensic scientist,James O'Donovan, partly disabling him.
In February 1988, aToday Tonight report identified Cahill as the man behind the O'Donovan bomb plot, the 1986 Russborough House robbery and the robbery of O'Connor's jewellery depot. As a result,PD leaderDessie O'Malley raised in theDáil the revelations that Cahill owned such expensive property inCowper Downs, despite having never worked, remarking that Cahill must have needed the extra wall space to "hang his artwork by the Dutch masters."[7]
As a result, the Gardaí set up aSpecial Surveillance Unit (SSU), nicknamed "Tango Squad", to specifically target and monitor Cahill's gang on a permanent, 24/7 basis. Cahill was given the callsign Tango-1.[7] The SSU also placed a direct presence on the estate at Cowper Downs, positioning a surveillance unit in the home of developer John Sisk, whose house backed onto Cahill's. Following the arrest of two of Cahill's associates in an attempted robbery, and resentful of the large Garda presence near his home, Cahill retaliated by ordering his men to slash the tyres of 197 cars on the night of 26 February 1988 (including 90 belonging to his neighbours in Cowper Downs). Cahill returned home to find his ownMercedes-Benz smashed.[7][8]
In early 1993,John "The Coach" Traynor, met his boss Cahill, to provide him with inside information about the inner workings of theNational Irish Bank (NIB) head office and branch atCollege Green, Dublin. Traynor told Cahill that the bank regularly held more than IR£10 million in cash in the building. The plan was to abduct NIB CEO Jim Lacey, his wife and four children and take them to an isolated hiding place. There, they would be held with fellow gang memberJo Jo Kavanagh, acting as a "hostage", who would frighten Lacey into handing over every penny stored in the bank's vaults.[9]
On 1 November 1993, Cahill's gang seized Lacey and his wife outside his home inBlackrock.[10] Whilst they were held at Lacey's home, Kavanagh was brought in and tied up, telling the family that he had been abducted two weeks before. On 2 November, Kavanagh drove Lacey to College Green to collect the ransom money, with Lacey eventually withdrawing IR£300,000 from an accessible cash machine.[10] After the cash had been handed over to the gang, Kavanagh told Gardaí that the pair had been kidnapped and forced to take part in a robbery.[9]
With a ransom note requesting payment of IR£10 million in cash, the Gardaí began investigating. They quickly found that Kavanagh had claimed child allowance during his two-week "capture", and so arrested him. Cahill then planned with Kavanagh to "raid" Kavanagh's home, and show intent to kill the Lacey family by shooting Kavanagh in the leg. Kavanagh was then to call the Irish newspapers from his hospital bed and claim he was a victim of the Lacey kidnapping gang.
However, the plan failed, and the gang were arrested.[9]
With all gang members from the Lacey kidnapping released on bail, on 18 August 1994, Cahill left the house at which he had been staying at Swan Grove and began driving to a local shop.[11] Upon reaching a road junction (where Oxford Road meets Charleston Road) he was repeatedly shot in the face and upper torso and died almost instantly. The gunman, who was armed with a.357 Magnum revolver, jumped on a motorbike, and disappeared from the scene.
There are a number of theories about who killed Martin Cahill and why.
Within hours of Cahill's death, theProvisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) claimed responsibility in a press release. The reasons cited were Cahill's alleged involvement with aPortadown unit of theUlster Volunteer Force (UVF). The UVF unit in question had recently attempted a bomb attack on a south DublinIrish pub which was hosting aSinn Féin fund-raiser on 21 May 1994. The UVF operatives had been prevented from entering by pub doorman andVolunteer in the Provisional IRA's Dublin BrigadeMartin Doherty, who they instead shot dead.[12][13] The IRA further alleged that Cahill had been involved in selling the stolenVermeer paintings from Russborough House to theUVF Mid-Ulster Brigade led byBilly Wright, alias "King Rat".[14] The Mid-Ulster Brigade thenfenced the paintings for money, which they used to fundarms trafficking fromSouth Africa under apartheid. This act allegedly sealed Cahill's fate and put him at the top of an IRA hit list.[15] In a later statement, the IRA said that it was Cahill's "involvement with and assistance topro-Britishdeath squads which forced us to act".[16]
Another theory surfaced after the publication ofPaul Williams'The General, which claims to have insights from Garda cold case investigators who were still looking into Cahill's murder. Reputedly, two of Cahill's underlings,John Gilligan andJohn Traynor, had put together a massivehashish trafficking ring while payingprotection money to the IRA and INLA. When Cahill allegedly tried to alsoextort protection money from them, the Gardaí believe that Traynor and Gilligan approached the IRA and accused Cahill of importingheroin, a drug that the IRA despised and were trying to prevent from being sold in Dublin. Reputedly this, and Cahill's past dealings with theUlster loyalists, gave the Provisional IRA reason to order his assassination. A further incentive was provided by Gilligan and Traynor, from whom the Provisionals allegedly demanded and received a considerable sum in exchange for Cahill's assassination.[9]
Even though Frances Cahill's memoir,Martin Cahill, My Father, alleges the General detested and steered clear ofdrug trafficking, his brother Peter was imprisoned for heroin trafficking.
After aRoman Catholicrequiem mass, Martin Cahill was buried inconsecrated ground atMount Jerome Cemetery. In 2001, his gravestone was vandalised and broken in two.[17]
Following the 1996 murder of journalistVeronica Guerin, the Dáil set up theCriminal Assets Bureau, to seize assets of those who were both convicted of crimes and also seemingly had no obvious means of income. The CAB was set up to focus mainly on high-profile drug dealers but had an open approach to all convicted criminals. Cahill denied that he was ever involved in drug dealing; however, his brother Peter was convicted of supplying heroin in the 1980s.[18]
In 1984, Cahill had bought his growing family a house on theCowper Downs development, on the southside of Dublin, paying IR£80,000 cash despite having no paid formal employment since he left his first and only job in 1969. On 1 May 2005, under an agreement with his widow Frances, the CAB seized and subsequently sold the property.[7]
Cahill was a diabetic. Cahill was married to Frances Lawless with whom he fathered five children. Cahill also had, with Frances' approval, amistress in his wife's younger sister Tina Lawless, with whom Cahill fathered a further four children. He had a child with a third sister. Thispolygamous arrangement was depicted in the 1998 biopic of Cahill's life,The General.[19]
In 1998John Boorman (who had lived in Ireland for nearly 20 years) directed a biographical film titledThe General, starringBrendan Gleeson as Cahill. The film won the Best Director award at theCannes Film Festival. It was based on a book by Irish crime journalistPaul Williams, who was also the crime editor of the Irishtabloid theSunday World. Boorman himself once had his home burgled by Cahill, who stole thegold record which Boorman had won for theDeliverance soundtrack. This incident is depicted in the film.[20]
Ken Stott starred as Cahill in a 1999BBC drama,Vicious Circle written byKieran Prendiville
The 2003 filmVeronica Guerin implies thatJohn Gilligan ordered Cahill's murder. In the film Gilligan and Traynor are not portrayed as Cahill's subordinates. Instead, Gilligan appears as a rival mob boss and Traynor as a lower-level associate.
The filmOrdinary Decent Criminal, starringKevin Spacey, is loosely based on Cahill's life.
In 2004, a book written by Matthew Hart was released entitledThe Irish Game: A True Story of Crime and Art, which depicted the story of the Russborough House heist in 1986 and Cahill's involvement.
Cahill's eldest daughter, Frances Cahill, released a book in 2008 entitledMartin Cahill, My Father.
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