Jason Hennessy snr: A promising boxer who stayed away from gangland crime until later in life

Jason Hennessy snr, who died in hospital this week after succumbing to gunshot wounds suffered in the Blanchardstown Christmas Eve gun attack, was a common sight down at the Criminal Courts of Justice.

However, typically he was not there to face charges himself but to support family members and associates being prosecuted for a variety of crimes including assault, witness intimidation and violent disorder.

This is because, unusually and unlike many of those around him, Hennessy (48) did not become seriously involved in organised crime until much later in life.

In his youth, he was considered a promising boxer and for most of his adult life, he stayed away from serious offending and worked in various jobs, including as a truck driver.

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Hennessy’s ordinary lifestyle is all the more noteworthy considering the prevalence of organised crime in the area he lived with his family. With an address in Sheephill Avenue, Corduff, Hennessy lived near many members of the Westies gang which controlled much of the heroin trade in Dublin in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The gang disintegrated after its leaders Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg were murdered in Spain in 2004 as part of a bloody gangland feud.

Although family members and friends became involved in the various gangs which succeeded the Westies, it was not until 2016 that Hennessy himself had his first big brush with the law.

He was charged, along with a family member, of engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour and resisting or wilfully obstructing gardaí during a dispute near his Corduff home.

More serious charges were to follow. In 2022, Hennessy appeared in court accused of money laundering. He was accused of possessing €3,050 which was the proceeds of crime at Bank of Ireland, Main Street in Blanchardstown on March 13th, 2019 and of possession of a stolen Suzuki motorbike on September 27th, 2019.

The court directed he be sent forward for a trial before a jury which was scheduled to get under way in 2025. Hennessy was granted legal aid at the time after the court heard he earned €350 a week.

The charges represented only a tiny fraction of the suspected offending carried out by Hennessy and his associates. Gardaí believe the gang Hennessy became associated with are involved in large-scale drug dealing as well as drug debt intimidation throughout the west Dublin area.

These criminal enterprises brought gang members into conflict with several rival groups. One feud resulted in dozens of violent incidents including arson attacks, shootings and assaults throughout 2018 and 2019.

In one incident, shots were fired at a man outside Riversdale Community College in Corduff as he waited for a relative to finish school.

More recently, Hennessy’s fellow criminals clashed with associates of Tristan Sherry (26) from Finglas, who was considered by gardaí to be a low level organised crime figure.

Last year, Sherry attacked an associate of Hennessy and was later stabbed himself in an apparent reprisal. This culminated in the events of December 24th when Sherry and one other man entered Browne’s Steakhouse in Blanchardstown and opened fire with a machine pistol, striking Hennessy in the neck.

Sherry was tackled by members of the victim’s party and brutally assaulted and stabbed. He was pronounced dead a short time later. Meanwhile, Hennessy was driven to hospital by a family member where doctors were able to stabilise his condition.

[ Blanchardstown shooting: Man held over Christmas Eve gangland attack in which one man killed ]

He remained in a serious condition but had been expected to survive. However, earlier this week his condition began to deteriorate and he was pronounced dead on Thursday.

Two separate but parallel murder investigations are now ongoing. Gardaí investigating Hennessy’s murder are trying to identify and locate Sherry’s accomplice from the restaurant.

Detectives investigating Sherry’s murder have arrested three men. Two of those, including an 18 year old, have since been charged with murder while the third is charged with violent disorder, assault and production of a knife.

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