He was gangland’s Capo dei Capi - a mentor and teacher to violent younger criminals and a powerful godfather who held a key position in Ireland’s criminal underworld.
In life, he paved the way for others as one of the first bosses on a sophisticated organised crime group. He mixed with paramilitaries and criminals and became the country’s first cocaine cowboy when he was caught trying to set up a mule smuggling route between Miami and Dublin.
And even in death, he holds a unique position in gangland as his murder marked a changing of the guard and a moment when the old order made way for the new.
In part one of The Life and Crimes of Eamon Kelly, Nicola and Niall discuss his early emergence as a well connected and ruthless criminal whose links to the paramilitaries gave him an extra edge on others.
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