John Daly was the twenty-first person to be murdered in the Republic during past three months. While his killing made the headlines, to many in the criminal underworld, he was a dead man walking from the moment his prison sentence ended back in August.

The 27-year-old, who had spent over a third of his short life incarcerated, came to the attention of the general public when he brazenly called up Joe Duffy’s RTÉ radio show on a mobile phone, from his prison cell.
Why did he make the phone call? In the house of mirrors that is the Irish criminal underworld, numerous theories have been advanced, but no one knows for sure. Was he signalling his independence from criminal masterminds in the prison, for one ulterior motive or another? Did it not strike him that the effect of his call would be to draw attention to the use of phones and to inspire a clampdown? Or was it just a bit of mad craic?
Daly chatted live on air and boasted that he was behind bars at the country’s most secure prison in Portlaoise. As indeed he was – but not for much longer.
As a result of his phone call, Daly was moved to Cork Prison and lost all privileges. But, for reasons that are unclear – and feed the rumour machine – he was never charged with the offence of being in possession of a mobile phone. For his part, Daly was probably relieved by the leniency of what was little more than a “slap on the wrist” punishment.
But that wasn’t the end of the affair: his call did indeed have serious ramifications. Daly’s 15 minutes of fame highlighted the wider issue of inmates having mobile phones – and using them to keep in touch with what was going on in the outside world. It prompted the prison authorities to act – and fast. As a result, the word on the street was that the notorious John Gilligan was “extremely annoyed” with Daly.
An estimated 1,385 phones were confiscated from Irish prisons in the wake of Daly’s call. This angered other inmates who had been using their mobile phones to keep in close contact with their loved ones. It also angered the convicted gang bosses, who Gardaí sources say, are using mobile phones to co-ordinate serious organised crime on the outside and to also smuggle drugs into the prisons.
In order to combat this activity, the prison authorities decided to rush through a new jamming system to block mobile phone calls. They will not give out information about the blocking system, but hotpress understands that it is currently operating, on a trial basis only, in the Midlands Prison.

CRIMINAL KINGPIN
Since Daly’s call to Liveline, inmates caught with mobiles can face fines of up to e10,000 or an additional prison sentence of up to five years if they are caught with phones in their possession. And when Justice Minister Brian Lenihan came into power he immediately vowed to crack down on the prevalence of mobile phones in prison, with the establishment of an ‘Operational Support Group’ dedicated to gathering intelligence on illicit material being hidden inside the cells.
According to sources, it was all too much for the criminal fraternity. A price, believed to be in the region of €50,000, was reportedly put on Daly’s head. Everybody said Daly was a dead man for making that stupid phone call.
But did Daly act impulsively or did he have an ulterior motive? One interesting theory that has emerged in the wake of the assassination is that the call was purposely orchestrated in an effort to disassociate Daly from a certain criminal kingpin.
An inside prison source explained: “It is a well known fact that CAB put any prisoners, who have connections with certain criminal bosses while inside, under round-the-clock surveillance when they get released.”
hotpress understands that Daly was not followed when he was set free after serving the majority of a nine-year sentence for an armed robbery on a petrol station. “And why would he be?” the source asks. “Maybe, as far as the authorities were concerned, Daly’s days were numbered. Somebody was going to whack him for the reward that was on offer.”
hotpress understands that, a few days after his release, Daly slipped out of the country. The tabloids reported that he had gone out to Alicante, which is a known haven for Irish criminals. Coincidentally, it is also the region where Gilligan’s wife and daughter run an Irish bar.
If underworld reports are accurate, Daly and another gangland figure known to the tabloids as ‘Fat Puss’ (Alan Bradley) actually visited the bar for drinks.
Another source says that Daly had been boasting that he’d gone to Spain “on a paid holiday” to organise various financial matters for one of the city’s crime overlords. One theory is that Daly had gained the confidence of a crime boss who had disclosed secret information to him about his operations in Spain. The plan was for Daly to make occasional trips to Spain to keep an eye on the business, believed to include dozens of properties, among other ventures.

A BRILLIANT ALIBI
It might have sounded like an ideal job for Daly. He wouldn’t have to go back to robbing petrol stations or peddling drugs. Instead, he would be able to live the highlife thanks to his powerful new connections.
What went wrong with the plan is impossible to establish – yet. Was it that some gangland figures became convinced that Daly now knew too much? Had he fulfilled his usefulness? Or was there something more personal involved, a grudge that was never likely to be forgiven?
Whatever the reason, there is no denying that the brutal killing of Daly was meticulously planned. In fact, it has emerged that murder was “ordered” around the time Daly was freed from prison. hotpress has learnt that the killer was also released from prison around the same time. The car used in the hit had been stolen in Donnycarney in August; it was using registration plates from a car stolen in Glasnevin around the same time.
According to gangland sources, the hit man went to Limerick to source a gun for the attack.
It was then a waiting game.
This is how the events are likely to have played out:
On the night of the murder, the killer had a ticket booked in his name to the UK. He arranged for a look-alike to fly out on his passport. Thus he had constructed a simple but brilliant alibi. How could he have killed Daly if he was already out of the country when the hit took place?
Daly had been, it is believed, partying the night away with two friends in the Spirit nightclub on Abbey Street. There, they met three women and invited them back to Finglas for a “house party”. But they had been followed for the whole night. The killer was lurking in the shadows and, as a taxi pulled up to take Daly party-wards, he quickly pounced.
It happened in a blink of an eye. The taxi driver looked on in horror as his new front seat passenger was blown away. Daly’s body fell across him, pinning him in position and the killer continued to pump bullets into the criminal. It was a horrendous scene, made all the more harrowing by the screams from the back seat.
The getaway car was found later in the nearby area of Scribblestown, which is also on the way to Dublin Airport. The killer left Dublin on a flight to the UK, later that same morning, using his look-a-like’s name and passport. He left with a e10,000 “deposit” of the e50,000 promised for the job.
All he has to do now is come back to collect the rest of his fee. Or will it be so simple? He’ll be hoping that none of Daly’s associates are out there, hell bent on retribution. When you think about it, that’s a proposition on which Paddy Power would almost certainly offer very good odds indeed.