by Andrew Carey | [email protected]
GER Dundon is due to walk free from prison on Monday after serving three years of a five year sentence, but the landscape of the Limerick underworld will be very different from the city he terrorised for most of a decade.
In February 2011, he was sent to jail after pleading guilty to violent disorder and, as the once-feared McCarthy/Dundon family lost its grip on the Limerick criminal scene, he was badly beaten up in two separate prison attacks.
The mother of his three children, April Collins, gave evidence that led to the conviction of his brothers John and Wayne for threatening to kill her and her mother. She also testified in the case that led to John Dundon’s conviction for the murder of Garryowen rugby player Shane Geoghegan.
Wayne Dundon is currently on remand for the murder of businessman Roy Collins.
April Collins left Ger Dundon and formed a relationship with gang rapist Thomas O’Neill, but it ended when he was jailed for a mugging.
Another brother, Dessie, is serving a life sentence for the murder of Limerick gang boss Kieran Keane and his sister Annabel is on the run from gardaí in the UK for allegedly threatening to kill April Collins in 2011.
While in prison, the McCarthy/Dundon gang was involved in an internal dispute which resulted in the Collins family, including April’s father and brother, splitting from the faction.
Ger Dundon was hospitalised after being involved in a mass brawl and on another occasion after convicted killer and rapist Ian Horgan attacked him for threatening Thomas O’Neill’s sister, with whom he is involved in a relationship.
Through what Chief Superintendent Dave Sheahan described as “targeted up front policing”, Limerick Gardaí have increased their control of the city streets.
Last September, Ger Dundon failed in his bid to appeal against the severity of the sentence handed down by the Special Criminal Court.
During his appeal hearing, lawyers argued that the 27 year-old who has 99 previous court convictions, knows that “there is no future for him in Limerick”.
