The leader of a criminal gang involved in a feud, which lasted over a decade and cost 16 lives, has been sentenced to nine years in prison for killing a rival gang leader.

Brian Rattigan, 39, admitted stabbing Declan Gavin to death outside a fast-food restaurant in Crumlin on 25 August 2001, a killing that began the so called 'Crumlin-Drimnagh' feud.

Rattigan went on trial for Gavin's murder twice in 2009. The first jury could not reach a verdict, but a second jury convicted him. However, that conviction was successfully appealed in 2017.

He was due to go on trial for the crime again this month, but the State accepted his plea of manslaughter when he entered it on arraignment last October.

Rattigan said on the same occasion that he was sorry to the victim's family and anyone else he had hurt through his actions.

He is also serving a 17-year sentence after he became the first person convicted of dealing drugs from inside an Irish prison.

Rattigan’s fingerprints were found next to the victim's blood on the door through which he had tried to chase him.

He was imprisoned shortly after the murder for a separate offence of shooting at gardaí and has been in custody since for a variety of other offences.

He remained a gang leader in prison and became the first person convicted of dealing drugs from inside.

Rattigan has been in custody since 2003 and is currently serving a 17-year sentence imposed in 2013 for controlling the possession of drugs for sale or supply from "within the prison walls".

This was backdated to 2008 and the expiration date was May 2025, but allowing for remission, Rattigan was due for release this November.

The so called Crumlin-Drimnagh feud claimed 16 lives over a ten-year period, including Rattigan's brother Joseph and his sister's partner Shay O'Byrne.

Rattigan's plea to manslaughter was his first admission to killing Gavin.

He also apologised to the family and wrote to the victim's mother that he had "regretted that night in silence ever since".

The Gavin family acknowledged the letter, but noted that the apology was "a little late, it's timing a little too convenient".

Mr Justice Michael White said the apology had come too late to be a mitigating factor and he sentenced him to nine years in prison to date from when he pleaded guilty on 1 October 2018.

Garda Chief Superintendent Brian Sutton has said this is "the first time he (Brian Rattigan) has put his hand up for the killing of Declan Gavin".

Speaking outside the court, Chief Supt Sutton described the investigation as difficult because there were a number of "reluctant witnesses", some of whom had to be arrested to be brought before the court to give evidence.

He said the Gavin family was happy "not only for the sentence, but the fact that it's closure and they're happy to move on with their lives".



