Election 2024: Hutch supporters wanted a 'plague on all your houses'
Gael's The Grand – The Transferred Donohoe’s Made Sunday Surplus Hutch A Appearance Votes For Brian Twist How Rds Lawless/pa Picture: Afternoon In Final Fine Tale To On Paschal At The See
Eight years ago, Gerry Hutch had to disguise himself to attend the funeral of his brother, Eddie Hutch Snr, in Dublin’s north inner city.
Yesterday, he narrowly missed out on being elected as a TD for the area after a tumultuous period and a bizarre — and inconceivable — turn of events.
Back in February 2016, Hutch’s older brother, a taxi driver, was gunned down at his home in the north inner city by a Kinahan hit team.
They were out for revenge for the shocking military-style assault at the Regency Hotel just three days previous, on 5 February 2016.
Kinahan cartel boss Daniel Kinahan narrowly escaped being killed at the event, but the assassins, dressed in pseudo-Garda Emergency Response Unit gear, took out a key lieutenant, David Byrne, in the lobby.
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That attack caused mayhem in the hotel with mobile phone recordings capturing the terror of boxing fans, including families with children, as they ran screaming for safety.
At the funeral of his brother, Gerry Hutch wore long grey hair under a baseball cap but was captured by photographers. It was the last time he was spotted in public in Ireland for over five years.
That ended when he was extradited home from Spain and charged with the murder of Byrne in September 2021.
The outcome of the trial in the Special Criminal Court is well known.
Hutch was cleared of the charge of murder in April 2023, with the court saying the prosecution had failed to prove Hutch was present at the Regency and shot Byrne, giving rise to commentary that different charges could have been brought.
Ms Justice Tara Burns said in her judgement that the court was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of the existence of the Hutch Criminal Organisation.
She said that audio recordings played during the trial at most gave rise to the possible inference that Hutch had given the go-ahead for the Regency.
The judgement said there was a “reasonable possibility”, from the evidence, that the Regency was planned by Patsy Hutch and that Gerard Hutch “stepped in, as head of the family, to attempt to sort out the aftermath of the Regency, particularly as his own life was at risk”.
Two long-time friends of the Hutch family did get jail terms for acting as getaway drivers for the “Hutch organisation”.
Back in February 2019, the Criminal Assets Bureau submitted documentation to the High Court, which was accepted by the court, that Gerry Hutch was the leader of the “Hutch organised crime group”.
Hutch’s brushes with the law ended after the Byrne case. After leaving for his long-time home in Lanzarote, Spain — where he had been resident since 2012 — he was dramatically arrested in a joint Garda-Spanish police operation in October 2024.
His home in leafy Clontarf was also searched as part of the operation.
The arrest came just days after the veteran criminal garnered extensive media publicity over reports that he was considering running in the upcoming general election.
At the start of this month, he was released from Spanish custody after paying bail of €100,000.
On his arrival at Dublin Airport, he was surrounded by media. He went on to receive regular — and largely positive — coverage in parts of the media. He canvassed openly in the Dublin Central constituency and used social media to good effect.
When the first count came in, on Saturday, Hutch clocked up 3,098 first preference votes — just shy of 10% of the valid ballot. That put him in fourth place.
It looked good for Hutch as the counts mounted, but the fight swerved away from him in the final round. Many were perplexed at just how well he was doing.
Social Democrats TD for Dublin Central Gary Gannon, who was reelected, urged people to look behind the vote that Gerry Hutch got. He was of the view that the long years of austerity between 2011 and 2017 hit the north inner city very hard and many people were unable to access “basic services”.
He said many were “in a dark place” and that their vote for Hutch stemmed from an attitude of “a plague on all your houses”.
Mr Gannon hit out at the media for the “disproportionate level” of publicity they gave Hutch in recent weeks.
There was also a large sympathy vote, centred around the wider Hutch family, and the long connections they have with the area, deepened by the Kinahan extermination campaign in the north inner city, which terrorised the community.
One garda who knows Hutch well said local people should remember that Hutch moved to Clontarf many years ago and largely resided in comfort in Spain. This garda doubted Hutch would “be capable” of doing the hard slog of being a local political representative.
Hutch may also have taken votes that could have gone to independent anti-immigration candidate Malachy Steenson. Hutch made a grand appearance on Sunday afternoon at the RDS for the final twist in the tale — to see how Fine Gael's Paschal Donohoe’s surplus votes transferred.
He was immediately surrounded by media and struggled through the scrum.
Quizzed by journalists, he said people voted for him “for change” and that, if elected, he would “do whatever they want”. Clearly not used to the slow pace of election counts, he quipped: “Let’s get the show on the road and watch the football match”.
Keeping her composure was Labour’s Marie Sherlock, who was 120 odd votes behind Hutch at this point.
Ms Sherlock has worked for 10 years in the trade union movement, before being selected as senator for her party.
Describing herself in her bio as a “proud Corkonian”, she lives in Phibsboro and is active in the local sporting giants of Bohs and Na Fianna.
Her hard work paid off, with the surplus pushing her past Hutch — 6,102 to 5,321.
Hutch wished Ms Sherlock the "best of luck" and mentioned the work of veteran Labour TD in the area Joe Costello.
He was flanked by security leaving the RDS and through the car park, where he broke into a jog to escape the media. He ran up the road into the five-star InterContinental Hotel. At least he could catch the rest of the match.