Nicola Tallent

This would have been held for the paper on the Sunday.

And this is a Friday afternoon.

We had something really special here.

But we also, I think, knew the guards were going to be desperate for that picture because they were two gunmen running from a scene of a crime.

So it was a very compromised situation.

And there was a bit of arguments going on.

And there was a, you know, voices were raised.

From my memory, as the afternoon went on and, you know, I was talking to contacts and to other people who were involved in crime journalism, etc.

It became apparent that there were no guards at the weigh-in.

That in actual fact, the guards didn't seem to be there at all.

They were called literally by the hotel and had arrived in response to what had already gone on.

Of course, David Byrne had been shot dead in the...

In the reception of the hotel we were getting photographs in later in the day which showed a very shocked looking Liam Byrne standing outside the hotel, his hands in his pockets.

standing beside his cousin, Liam Rowe, another significant cartel member.

There was no sign of Daniel Kinahan.

I was getting calls from people who were telling me that these professional killers had been flown into the country and had already been flown out.

There was rumours, there was spin, and also there was the general, I suppose, conversations in regards to, oh my God, what is going to happen next?

I mean, all anyone knew for sure was something was going to happen.

David Byrne was a very, very senior lieutenant.

He was also from criminal royalty, from the Byrne family.