David Byrne funeral: Security operation continues

The massive Garda operation mounted for the funeral of murdered gangster David Byrne continued late on Monday night with gardaí monitoring a social gathering attended by mourners at a pub in Tallaght, Dublin.

They set up checkpoints and restricted vehicle access to the pub.

Earlier in the day, between 800 and 1,000 mourners gathered at St Nicholas of Myra Church on Francis Street for Byrne’s funeral Mass. He was later buried at Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold’s Cross.

There was a significant Garda presence around the proceedings which included unarmed gardaí in uniform as well as armed members of the Emergency Response Unit, some wearing balaclavas to conceal their identities. Gardaí begun the operation at the weekend, with checkpoints erected close to the Byrne family home on Raleigh Square, Crumlin, where the dead man was waked on Sunday.

Traffic disrupted

The funeral cortege walked the last part of the journey from Crumlin to Francis Street, with a group of about 40 men leading the mourners, all dressed in identical black suits, blue shirts and black ties.

There were three hearses, two carrying floral tributes, and nine Mercedes limousines for family and close friends, along with three horse-drawn carts with floral tributes.

Traffic was disrupted for a period around Francis Street, where the funeral Mass began just before 1pm. Members of the Garda’s Public Order Unit along with teams of uniformed reinforcements were on standby, but were not needed.

Byrne was shot dead when gunmen opened fire inside the Regency Hotel in north Dublin last Friday week, intent on killing members of the drugs gang led from Spain by Dubliner Christy Kinahan. Byrne was aligned to the Kinahan gang.

Four days later, Eddie Hutch (59) was shot dead at his home in Dublin in a revenge attack for Byrne’s killing. His funeral is expected to take place later this week when another major security operation will be mounted.

Daniel Kinahan, who escaped from the Regency Hotel attack without injury, and his brother Christopher jnr, attended the funeral on Monday but left Ireland shortly afterwards. Following the success of the Garda operation in ensuring Byrne’s funeral passed off without incident, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors called for the force to be resourced properly at all times.

It said the time for rhetoric had passed and assurances by Taoiseach Enda Kenny that the Garda would be given all the resources it needed must be matched with action. “Funding cannot just be made available to police a crisis,” said AGSI deputy general secretary John Jacob. “Funding must be guaranteed to ensure a regular policing service is delivered day-in day-out in all corners of Ireland. The public are entitled to go about their business with confidence and in safety.”