Ken Foy

And as the years went on, I think, you know, he started to sign up, or the gym, MGM started to sign up more and more and more boxers.

You know, Anthony Fitzpatrick, Peter McDonagh, Thomas Stoker, Declan Garrity.

Soon there was more than a hundred.

And you were starting to see, you know, this is more than a hobby.

So by the Regency Hotel shooting in February 2016 and in the immediate aftermath, boxing commentators were covering that story because MGM at that point had become what they were calling one of the biggest players in the sport on this side of the Atlantic, which was probably a bit of an eye opener to us crime journalists who hadn't really overly focused on that, even though we knew they were involved initially.

boxing, crime, criminals, you know, MMA.

They always seem to mix and mingle.

Outside the National Stadium as well, was it?

That was later on.

Indeed, you mentioned Oliver Bond there back again one year previous in 2014 when Jean Boylan, the mother of Christie Jr.

and Daniel Kinahan died.

They actually brought that area to a standstill for her funeral and they behaved like a mafia organisation.

And photographers on that occasion were also told to move on or else...

No police were involved in that.

It was a time in policing in Ireland that you would not have been proud of, I have to say, while working as a journalist, trying to expose the activities, the strength and the belief in the untouchability of this cartel.

You always seem to be there alone with like either a camera or a pen, which, you know...

I think it was a dangerous...

Period of time for journalists as well.

You're talking 2012 up until 2015, 16, because we still had the ability to get close to them, up close and personal, to photograph them, to detail what they were doing.

They were over and back to Ireland.