Eamon Dillon

Houses once belonging to limerick gangster Ciarán Keane Jr.

are to go under the hammer as the Criminal Assets Bureau put them up for auction.

Keane Jr., the son of murdered mob boss Ciarán Keane Sr., is now based in Dubai, according to affidavits put before the courts.

Today I'm talking with Eamon Dillon about the case and you're listening to Crime World, a podcast from crimeworld.com.

So Eamon, you've described Ciarán Keane Jr.

as Limerick's gangland royalty, which I'm sure is something that sees him well on the streets, but not particularly when the state are having a little look at his activities.

And of course, he's now subject to Criminal Assets Bureau attention.

And this was... And which side were they on?

Because, of course, Limerick at this point was immersed in a... Well, it was a bubbling feud was going on between two factions.

The Dundons...

brothers, the infamous Wayne and John Dundon, Ger and Desi, had come back from England and had sort of joined forces with cousins of theirs called the McCarthy's, who were at war with the keen Colopy faction, essentially.

So the Dundons that had contacted Ciarán Keane are...

There was, yeah.

Dungeons were behind the double cross, weren't they?

So back to Ciarán Keane in 2003, he was contacted and told that the Ryan brothers were going to be delivered basically to him on a plate.

At that point, he saw them as a threat because they were out for vengeance for their uncle.

So Keane Senior arrived on the side of the road to meet them, realised that he'd been double-crossed.

He was overwhelmed, murdered, and his nephew, Owen Tracy, was stabbed something like 17 times.

Amazingly survived and went on to give evidence at the subsequent trials.

But what age was Ciarán Keane Junior when his father was killed?