ALAN RYAN’s inner circle held a night out to celebrate the freedom of Dean Evans as he awaits trial on a murder charge.
Evans and his brother Darragh joined up with Ryan’s brother Vinnie, Derek Nolan and other pals on a night out to celebrate the fact he got bail last month.
Dean Evans was one of three men charged with the murder of former Real IRA member Pete Butterly, who was shot dead in the car park of the Huntsman Inn in Gormanstown, Co. Meath, on March 6, 2013.
He had been in Portlaoise Prison for over a year, but the case against the men collapsed at the Special Criminal Court in January and a retrial has now been set for next year. As a result, Evans was granted bail and he soon joined up with his old pals, who were Ryan’s core associates.
Vinnie and Darragh spent a year in Portlaoise after being charged with possession of an assault rifle and a handgun on the day gang boss Michael ‘Micka’ Kelly was shot dead in 2012.
However, the Special Criminal Court ruled there was an insufficient evidential basis from which a jury could find them guilty.
They weren’t the only members of the group to be charged of an offence and later walk free.
Derek Nolan ,along with Alan Ryan, John Stokes and Daryl Mulcahy, had been charged with demanding that the Castle pub in Summerhill, Dublin, close within 24 hours.
Stokes ran the rival Player’s Lounge pub, which became a Real IRA hangout at the time.
Ryan was shot dead before the case came to court and the State dropped the charges against the other men after the publican who said he was threatened changed his evidence.
The majority of Ryan’s pals have faced death threats in recent years, including the Evans brothers and Nolan. Dean Evans and Nolan were living in a house in the south inner city when the threats were at their highest around two years ago. Evans can not stay at his parents home due to the threats against him.
Nolan fled Dublin after being informed of threats to his life, but has since returned.
Associates of the gang boss known as Mr Big have targeted their family homes on more than one occasion, despite the fact the men no longer live there. As well as celebrating Evans release from prison, pals of Alan Ryan recently commemorated him by having special mugs made up featuring his picture and a picture of an IRA colour party firing shots over his coffin.
