Where's Judge Roy Bean when you need him?

So, he’d feel right at home in Ireland today, then. Everywhere you look, there’s villainy. Gangs abound. They’ve carved up the distribution of drugs, smuggled cigarettes, people trafficking, prostitution, piracy and protection.
They’re vicious too, and the increased availability of weapons from paramilitary sources and from the former Yugoslavia, coupled with the enormous increase in the use of cocaine by crims, means that viciousness characterises most criminal interactions in a way that is new and very worrying indeed.
The headlines were grabbed by Limerick, as so often they are. By now everyone knows of the feuds between a number of well-known families. In January we had the saga of the kidnapping of Edward (Eddie) and Kieran Ryan from one family and the murder of Ciaran Keane from a rival family.
In July the feud escalated after murder of John Ryan and later in the year the trial of Liam Keane collapsed as witnesses suffered a collective amnesia, blaming drink and drugs.
But lest we seem hard on Limerick, there are many other gangs, in Dublin, Cork and Waterford in particular. The apparent impunity with which many seem to operate was the subject of much anger and hand-wringing this year. Some people argued for using the Offences against the State Act and the Special Criminal Court. Whatever, there’s a lot of gangsters and few solutions.
Of equal but as yet less overt concern is the general level of youth crime and general alienation. Many people did well out of the Celtic Tiger years, but the gap between the haves and the have-nots in Ireland grew. There is a fertile ground out there for the gangs to keep recruiting and there is some evidence that such is indeed happening. This will be a big theme in 2004.
White-collar crime will be another. Already George Redmond has been getting to know the inside of a jail for corruption and taking bribes. He may not be the last. The Criminal Assets Bureau has been rolling up its sleeves. Some big fish are in the net.