James McGovern

Kinahan cartel member Seán McGovern was involved in targeting and tracking Dubliner Noel Kirwan who was shot dead in his car seconds after arriving home, the Special Criminal Court was told.

Kirwan (62), who knew the Hutch family from childhood and featured in a newspaper photograph attending the funeral of murder victim Eddie Hutch, had no known involvement in crime and was an “easy target”, Detective Sergeant Donal Daly said.

Evidence also linked McGovern with devices used to track James ‘Mago’ Gately whom the Kinahan gang believed was involved in the February 2016 Regency hotel attack. Kinahan gang member David Byrne, was killed and McGovern was wounded in that attack, Det Supt David Gallagher told the court on Monday.

McGovern was heard “discussing targets” with a man referred to as “Cap” during a phone conversation two days after the 2016 Regency hotel attack, he said.

McGovern had told “Cap” in February 2016: “They targeted us, they wanted you, this is personal.” McGovern added: “I swear on my baby’s life, I’m not stopping now.”

The three-judge court will hear further evidence on Friday before sentencing McGovern who last month pleaded guilty to two counts of directing organised crime during the Kinahan-Hutch feud.

He was arrested in Dubai in October 2024 and in May 2025 became the first Irish criminal to be extradited from United Arab Emirates.

Wearing a black shirt and jeans, McGovern arrived at the Courts of Criminal Justice on Monday amid tight security and sat impassively in court as evidence was heard.

With a previous address at Kildare Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12, McGovern has pleaded guilty to directing the activities of a criminal organisation between October 20th and December 22nd, 2016 in relation to the murder of Christopher ‘Noel’ Kirwan.

He also admitted directing the activities of a criminal organisation between October 17th, 2015 and April 6th, 2017 in connection with the surveillance of James Gately in preparation for the commission of an indictable offence.

On Monday, Gallagher, who has been involved in investigating the Kinahan gang over years, described McGovern as “a senior lieutenant” in the gang operating on the ground in Ireland.

He agreed with McGovern’s barrister Michael Bowman that McGovern is “three tiers” down in the organisation’s structure with “significant people” above him.

Earlier, he said investigations linked McGovern with tracker devices used by the Kinahan gang to track Gately.

During a conversation in March 2017 between McGovern, who used handles including ‘Knife’, and another man, referred to as ‘Bon New’, the latter said: “Ha ha, we’ll get Mago this week.”

He said the charges against McGovern arose from the feud between the Kinahan and Hutch organised crime gangs which began during 2014 and resulted in violence in Ireland and Spain, he said. That violence included the shooting in Spain of Gary Hutch.

The feud escalated after the murder of Gary Hutch and culminated in the “significant watershed moment” of the Regency hotel attack by the Hutch gang in February 2016, during which David Byrne was killed and McGovern was wounded.

The court was shown a PowerPoint presentation outlining six different areas of investigation that contributed to the evidence against McGovern in relation to the Gately charge.

The six areas were operations by An Garda Síochána, involving surveillance, information and “interventions” during 2015 and 2016; evidence recovered from a satellite navigation device; data from telephones; evidence from GPS tracking devices; CCTV evidence and evidence from encrypted devices.

Searches were also carried out at various locations, including McGovern’s home.

Gallagher said certain software used on some devices has a legitimate purpose in the business world but was taken advantage of by the criminals. It involves using a specific mail service on the network confined to a particular administrator and users and was a closed network. Multiple Blackberry devices were seized and analysed and some of those were relevant to the case against McGovern.

The evidence linked some of the devices seized to McGovern and to other Kinahan gang members who have been convicted here and in the UK, the court was told.

Other evidence from PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) messages linked McGovern with an Estonian “hitman for hire”, Imre Arakas, who arrived in Dublin on April 3rd 2017, the court was told.

Arakas was arrested by gardaí the following day at a house at Blakestown Cottages and gardaí recovered a piece of paper with Estonian writing. The name “James Gately” and an address was written on that.

An encrypted Blackberry phone used by Arakas was accessed and messages on that were photographed before they were deleted remotely.

After the arrest of Arakas, communications showed McGovern and others were very much discussing that arrest and the consequences of it, Gallagher said. That included McGovern and another man assuring each other they were not a “rat”.

In another communication, Bon New had said “we have to change tactics” and McGovern had replied: “100 per cent or we’re all going to jail, we need to get out of here.”

McGovern was among some Kinahan gang figures who left Ireland after that, the court heard.

In evidence regarding the second admitted charge concerning Noel Kirwan,

Det Sgt Daly said Kirwan was shot dead when sitting in his Ford Mondeo car in the driveway of his Clondalkin home on December 22nd 2016.

A gunman fired seven shots into the driver’s window of the car before fleeing in a van parked nearby and driven by another man, the court heard.

Kirwan had no known involvement in crime but he had featured in a newspaper photograph attending the funeral of Eddie Hutch and appeared to be an “easy target”, the witness said.

Gardaí identified five suspects as having roles relating to the killing. Four had been convicted of offences in that regard.

McGovern was among the five because he had motive in having been shot during the Regency attack by the Hutch gang and his own links with the Kinahan gang.

McGovern was also linked to a tracking device which was first attached to a BMW car driven by Kirwan until he traded it in for the Mondeo, the witness said. The tracking device was later removed from the BMW and attached to the Mondeo.

Within seconds of Kirwan pulling into his driveway in the Mondeo on December 22nd 2016, he was shot, the court heard.

The evidence was that McGovern was communicating data from the tracking device every 30 seconds that day to the two people involved in the killing.

Other evidence linked McGovern to a mobile “burner” phone used for planning murder of Kirwan, the witness said.