Jonathan Dowdall

2022 - 10 - 17

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Irish Examiner"

Dowdall looks aged and subdued as he receives four-year sentence (Irish Examiner)

It is the first sentence to be handed down in relation to the notorious gun attack at the Regency Hotel, north Dublin, in February 2016.

The father and son looked relatively relaxed as the hearing ended. They walked smartly in a circuitous route across the room, with Jonathan nodding to someone in the body of the court as he exited a door. The Dowdalls were brought by gardaí to the Court of Criminal Justice escorted by two military jeeps, before being ushered to Court Number 17 on the sixth floor through the interior of the complex. The Hutch trial is set to be the most high-profile gangland case before the three-judge court over the last two decades, since the John Gilligan trial in 2002 for the murder of Veronica Guerin. Taking into account the “extraordinary” factor that Jonathan Dowdall had given a statement of evidence against co-accused, he cut the headline figure they had identified — that of eight years — down to four years, with his father landing a two-year term, backdated. His trial, and that of Jason Bonney and Paul Murphy, is due to start on Tuesday before the non-jury court.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "The Irish Times"

Jonathan Dowdall: From businessman to 'bobblehead' to convict (The Irish Times)

Within three years 36-year-old lost his business, council seat and freedom while his former party did everything it could to disavow him.

He was a late addition to the Sinn Féin ticket and it is almost certain his selection cost another Sinn Féin candidate, Gaye Fagan, a seat. He also pushed for the Garth Brooks concerts to be allowed to go ahead in Croke Park. He came out of nowhere in the 2014 local election and disappeared just as quickly.” One of those, Mary Lou McDonald, saw Dowdall as the ideal candidate for the party in the upcoming 2014 local election. Once Jonathan graduated from DIT and set up his own business, he also got occasional loans from the Hutches to meet payroll. When he was 15-years-old he got to know his neighbour Patrick “Patsy” Hutch, the brother of Gerry Hutch.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Independent.ie"

Jonathan Dowdall and father to get special meals in prison to ... (Independent.ie)

Former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall and his father are expected to have specially cooked meals in prison to avoid attempts to poison them, ...

However, the “dealer” was actually an undercover UK police officer and two members of the gang were later convicted of trying to collect the arsenal of weapons. Sources revealed that the wider Hutch gang has “gone into overdrive” in trying to “dissuade” the father and son from going ahead with their testimony in the upcoming trial of Gerry Hutch and two other men, which is to get underway today. He and his father Patrick, who was jailed for two years, booked room 2104 in the hotel for Kevin Murray, a member of the hit team who stayed in the Regency on the night before the attack, which resulted in another 16 murders – 14 of which were committed by the Kinahan cartel.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Independent.ie"

Special prison meals to protect Jonathan Dowdall as trial of Gerry ... (Independent.ie)

Former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall and his father are expected to have specially cooked meals in prison to avoid attempts to poison them, ...

However, the “dealer” was actually an undercover UK police officer and two members of the gang were later convicted of trying to collect the arsenal of weapons. Sources revealed that the wider Hutch gang has “gone into overdrive” in trying to “dissuade” the father and son from going ahead with their testimony in the upcoming trial of Gerry Hutch and two other men, which is to get underway today. He and his father Patrick, who was jailed for two years, booked room 2104 in the hotel for Kevin Murray, a member of the hit team who stayed in the Regency on the night before the attack, which resulted in another 16 murders – 14 of which were committed by the Kinahan cartel.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Independent.ie"

Special prison meals to protect Jonathan Dowdall from poison ... (Independent.ie)

Former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall and his father are expected to have specially cooked meals in prison to avoid attempts to poison them, ...

However, the “dealer” was actually an undercover UK police officer and two members of the gang were later convicted of trying to collect the arsenal of weapons. Sources revealed that the wider Hutch gang has “gone into overdrive” in trying to “dissuade” the father and son from going ahead with their testimony in the upcoming trial of Gerry Hutch and two other men, which is to get underway today. He and his father Patrick, who was jailed for two years, booked room 2104 in the hotel for Kevin Murray, a member of the hit team who stayed in the Regency on the night before the attack, which resulted in another 16 murders – 14 of which were committed by the Kinahan cartel.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Newstalk"

Regency attack: Jonathan Dowdall sentenced to four years in prison (Newstalk)

Jonathan Dowdall has been sentenced to four years in prison for facilitating the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in Dublin.

By doing so, the judges accepted he had put himself and his immediate family “in peril”. He was given a substantial reduction in his headline sentence on the back of his decision to give evidence at the upcoming murder trial. Jonathan Dowdall was given a substantial reduction in his headline sentence on the back of his decision to give evidence at the upcoming Regency Hotel murder trial.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Midlands103"

Gerry Hutch Trial Begins As Jonathan Dowdall Begins Sentence In ... (Midlands103)

'The Monk' is accused of murdering David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in Dublin in February 2016.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Sunday World"

Gerry Hutch 'told Jonathan Dowdall' he was 'one of team that shot ... (Sunday World)

Gerry Hutch “The Monk” Hutch told a former Sinn Fein councillor that he had been “one of the team that shot David Byrne” in the Regency hotel attack, ...

Patrick Hutch had been charged with murder and possession of firearms but walked free from court in 2019 after charges against him were dropped by the state. They admitted making a room at the hotel available to the criminal organisation that carried out the attack. According to the prosecution, Mr Hutch went on to say in a separate, bugged conversation with Mr Dowdall that he “wasn’t going to show a weak hand looking for peace” with the rival Kinahan gang.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "thejournal.ie"

Gerry Hutch told Jonathan Dowdall he was 'one of the team' that ... (thejournal.ie)

The 59-year-old is accused of killing David Byrne at Dublin's Regency Hotel in 2016.

A search for him began in April 2021 after Ireland issued a European Arrest Warrant in connection with the attack on the Regency Hotel. Hutch was also recorded as saying that he “was not going to show a weak hand”, the court heard. The victim was shot by two of the tactical assailants and further rounds were delivered to his head and body. The State dropped the murder charge against Jonathan Dowdall on 3 October. He was being held in a Madrid prison. Dowdall drove Hutch to meet the republicans on 20 February.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Irish Mirror"

Convicted Jonathan Dowdall gave €1k donation to Mary Lou ... (Irish Mirror)

Speaking in Leinster House on Tuesday morning, Mr Ó Broin was asked if the party would donate the same sum to a charity supporting the victims of gangland ...

He said that the party was “very quick” to distance itself from Dowdall in the aftermath of the Regency shooting. He also denied a suggestion from the Irish Mirror that the party was “not digging deep enough”. Mr Ó Broin said that if the party had been aware of Mr Dowdall’s link to crime, he would not have been admitted to the party or allowed to run for public office. A Sinn Féin spokesperson told the Irish Mirror that the €1,000 charity donation was made at a time when Dowdall ran a “successful local electrical business”. While a member of Sinn Féin, Dowdall made a €1,000 donation that the party has now confirmed was spent at the time. Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin has said that it would be “tokenistic” for the party to make a €1,000 donation to charity following Jonathan Dowdall’s murder conviction.

Explore the last week