Limericks criminal feud: Truce agreed?

National and local newspapers are reporting that two Limerick criminal families have tentitivel aggreedd a truce.

Reports say the feuding McCarthy-Dundon and Keane-Collopy gangs have formally agreed to a provisional truce in the years long bitter and deadly warfare which has gripped the streets and housing estates of the city.

The agreement was reached just before the weekend through two intermediaries who acted as go-betweens for the two gangs.

It is the first time in eight years of bloodshed that the city's gangs have agreed to cease attacks on each other.

The arrangement has followed a series of covert meetings and successive phone calls to senior members of both the gangs who are locked up behind bars.

Both Christy Keane and Wayne Dundon, who are serving lengthy sentences, were involved in formalising the agreement between the feuding factions.

A well-informed source said: "Word is out amongst those involved on the streets and they have been directed not to do anything that will provoke or antagonise the other side." The pact is only days old and it remains to be seen if it will hold.

It is understood that the quarrelling factions agreed to a break in hostilities as they are both coming under intensive pressure from the Criminal Assets Bureau and gardai investigating ongoing criminality in Limerick in recent months. Previous attempts to bring an end to the bloodshed failed, however, because of the logistics of the criminals involved in the feud.

With senior members of both the McCarthy-Dundon and Keane-Collopy gangs in jail and serving lengthy sentences, no meeting could take place.

Negotiations between the two gangs continued throughout last week until Thursday night. An associate of the Keane-Collopy faction has been speaking to jailed members of the St Mary's Park-based gang throughout negotiations.

Another individual who is also based in Limerick city has spoken over the phone to jailed members of the McCarthy-Dundon gang who have agreed to the tacit truce. This individual knows members from both sides of the feud.
Via Independant

The news without a doubt will be taken with a giant grain of salt by Limerick people as the so-called armistice enters its first few

Limerick Garda Superintendent John Kerin told the Limerick Leader,

"If true, we would welcome it. We would welcome anything that would create harmony and peace in the city.”