Their rivals the Keane-Collopy's on the other hand seemed to be far more professional. The Keane's were also the ones with the more important contacts for narcotics and such. The Keane-Collopy's, as far as I know, are not Travellers but come from the settled community. They grew up on the estates. Both gangs have been severely weakened now however.
But if the Keanes are the real deal, why was Christy Keane caught so foolishly, PERSONALLY delivering a sack of hashish, if I remember correctly? And why no attempt to kill any of the Dundons? I read the latest book by Paul Williams called "Murder Inc" about the Limerick gangland and it says the only serious retaliation by Christy Keane was robbing of drugs his former allies who aligned themselves with the Dundons. Also, Brian Collopy had some high-ranking Dundon/McCarthy member (forgot the name) killed by Gary Campion who switched sides. I thought when Christy Keane got out of prison there would be a river of Dundon/McCarthy blood washing the streets. Instead, nothing. The police did all the work.
I don't think either of the two gangs were all-powerful or held any influence outside of Limerick. None of them are rocket scientists. Able to control the local drug trade but that's where it stops. But compared to the Dundons, the Keane-Collopy's seem to have had the better contacts and were also far more involved in buying up property and such. They seemed to be more businesslike compared to the Dundons and McCarthy's that more behaved like raving mad dogs.
Again, this is just my view from reading through the cases. Irish posters may have a different opinion.
