Tensions in the capital are high as the latest gangland victim is to be laid to rest.
Gary Hutch, gunned down in Spain on 24 September, is to be buried tomorrow following the repatriation of his body last week.
The gangland figure, a nephew to 'The Monk', was shot a number of times by a masked gunman at an apartment complex on the Costa del Sol.
It is believed he was targeted by former associates after escaping two previous assassination attempts.
Sources say tensions in Dublin are high, and that armed gardai will be deployed on the streets of the north-inner city for the ceremony.
"The situation is on a knife-edge, with associates of Hutch furious that he may have been executed on the orders of his one-time boss Christy Kinahan," the source told the Herald.
His funeral takes place at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Sean McDermott Street, at 11am tomorrow.
Gardai will be watching the ceremony closely and armed members of the force will be present on the streets as a precaution.
"Tensions are currently at a high which hasn't been seen in the area for the last number years, so gardai are taking extra preventative measures," a source added.
A number of Dublin's most notorious gangland figures are expected to pay their respects.
However, this may not include notorious criminal 'Fat' Freddie Thompson.
The latter may be forced to avoid the ceremony as reports suggest he is a marked man.
Gardai will patrol the city's streets throughout the funeral, while plain clothed detectives are expected to keep a discreet eye on the ceremony itself.
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Gardai on high alert as 'nasty' thug is released from prison
A major garda alert has been issued after a dangerous criminal who specialises in preying on and stealing from vulnerable OAPs was released from prison.
Anthony Connors was released from jail last week after he served a 10-year sentence for terrorising 13 pensioners in their homes, including assaulting and falsely imprisoning some of them.
"Gardai across Dublin and beyond have been notified that Connors is back on the streets," a senior source explained.
"There is major concern about this prolific burglar, whose modus operandi has always been to specifically target older people.
"Connors, unlike many of the burglary criminals active nowadays, travels everywhere on foot. He is a nasty criminal," the source added.
His sentencing hearing at Dublin Circuit Court in December, 2009, heard that Connors (40) targeted victims living in accommodation for the elderly. He would call at their door and ask them a question before pushing past them and ransacking their house.
He was on early release from prison at the time and committed several of the offences while on bail.
Sometimes he assaulted the victim and on other occasions he locked them in a room as he escaped. Nearly all his victims were over 70.
Connors, of Tulip Court in Darndale, north Dublin, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of burglary, three counts of false imprisonment, two counts of robbery, one of assault and one of handling stolen property.
The offences occurred in Donnybrook, Dun Laoghaire, Ringsend, Blackrock, Phibsboro, Ranelagh and in the city centre between November 2007 and March 2008.
Before being sentenced in 2009, chronic drug addict Connors was previously handed an eight-year term for another string of burglaries, including the robbery of a 100-year-old woman, but was given early release.
Most of Connors' victims lived alone.
Many later told gardai that they still suffered from nightmares and were afraid to leave the house.
GANGSTER’s moll turned State witness April Collins no longer has full-time armed Garda protection stationed outside her Limerick home.
A decision was made to withdraw the armed officers after she deliberately gave them the slip several times, according to sources.
The unmarked Garda car with armed officers has been a feature on Hyde Road, where the ex-girlfriend of Ger Dundon lives, for the last few years.
She was a key witness in the murder case against John Dundon, who was convicted of the murder of innocent rugby player Shane Geoghegan.
“Basically she was suiting herself, heading off without telling anyone and then calling them up when she felt she wanted them there again,” a source told the Sunday World.
Sources said she had been seen exiting the back of her property over a garden wall without informing officers.
April Collins and Ger Dundon
Although the static protection has been withdrawn, a ‘floating’ car with armed officers will stay in the area where she lives, said Sunday World sources.
April, who has three children with Ger Dundon, also gave evidence in court saying she had been threatened by John and Wayne Dundon when Ger was in prison.
Collins also has a daughter with convicted sex attacker Thomas O’Neill, who is serving a three-and-a-half year sentence over a violent robbery.
In 2013 she helped bring down the notorious Dundon gang when she became a State witness in the Shane Geoghegan murder trial.
The dad-of-one was killed after being shot in a case of mistaken identity as he returned home in November 2008.
Ger Dundon’s brother John had put out a hit on a man named John ‘Pitchfork’ McNamara, but hired killer Barry Doyle shot the wrong man.
It was her evidence against the Dundon gang boss that resulted in a guilty verdict at the murder trial and Dundon getting a life sentence.
She also gave evidence against Wayne when he was convicted of the murder of businessman Roy Collins.
April gave evidence against John Dundon
The relationship with her ex-partner and his brothers soured when Ger was in jail in 2010.
Her father, ‘Fat’ Jimmy Collins, had also fallen out with the Dundons as the gang began to fall apart, while her brother Gareth was being blamed for a fire a Wayne Dundon’s house in Hyde Road in 2010.
When she stopped bringing the children to visit their father in jail, she said that she was threatened by Wayne and John.
In evidence, she told how Wayne Dundon was “very angry” when he called to her home in March, 2011.
She said that Dundon told her: “If anything happens to my brother over you, I will kill you over it.”
At the same time, she had started a relationship with O’Neill, with whom she has since had a child.
Three of the Dundon brothers Wayne, John and Dessie are serving life for murder with April’s ex Ger the only one of the four gangster brothers a free man.
The Dundons had forged a terrifying reputation for threatening and intimidating witnesses and backed up verbal threats with bullets on more than one occasion.
