Nicola Tallent

Of course, David Byrne had been shot dead 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.

And there was rumors, 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.

His brother-in-law is Thomas Balmer Kavanagh.

You know, his brother is Liam Byrne.

And he's very much at the heart of the Kinnahan cartel.

We knew from the beginning that this

attack had occurred as part of the rivalry between the Kinahan and Hutch factions of what was once the one organisation.

And I think everybody was really trying to predict what this might lead to.

But nobody could have guessed.

That bit absolutely 100%.

But at that very early stage, I recall contacts of mine suggesting that the Hutches were an army.

Did they have the backing of the dissidents?

Was this going to, you know, were they going to be very heavily armed?