Crime World
Episode 1362: Three homes owned by Limerick mob boss to be seized as he lives it up in Dubai
26 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the background of Ciarán Keane Jr. and his family?
There are other people, you know, that we haven't really kind of openly talked about, I suppose, you know, who have been connected with legitimate businesses, who have stayed arm's length from the feuding gangs, but have been central to it in terms of directing what has happened, you know, over the last 25 years, you know, and brought that whole kind of criminal scene in Limerick to a new level, where they became probably one of the most successful drugs retail operations like in the country.
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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.
Yeah, I mean, we spoke about this before. They brought a case against him and his partner, Laura Flanagan, over houses that they had the beneficial ownership of. And I suppose in the belief evidence, they went through particularly focusing on Ciarán Keane Jr. 's, on his criminal background and his family, of course, who are very well known individuals.
His father would have been Ciarán Keane Senior, who was the man who was murdered in the famous or infamous double cross with the McCarthy-Ryan, McCarthy-Dundon gangs. Just tell us a little bit about that. When was that? It was in early 2003. And... There was quite the... The two Ryan brothers were supposedly kidnapped.
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.
Yeah, they would have been. And that actually goes back to like the early 90s when there was one of the McCarthy's was killed in an accident, was hit by a van and died. And one of those men, I suppose it was the husband of the dead person, a man called Patrick McCarthy, who was insisting on getting paid. The Keens actually paid for the funeral. Nice. But he kept coming back and looking for more.
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Chapter 2: Why are the properties owned by Ciarán Keane Jr. being auctioned?
He survived. He was left for dead, stabbed several times. So he was able to give evidence. And, of course, those five guys then, they were quite quickly jailed for life. I think it was actually the same year, like at the end of 2003. Yeah. And one of those, of course, has died in prison. There's others who are, they're in open prison, others who are still in closed prison.
I think it was Carney, Judge Carney at the time said that these guys should never be allowed out of prison so long as the feud continues. And of course, like subsequent to that, there were several other deaths, you know, it went on for decades. I suppose, right up until 2015 when Christy Keane was lucky to survive being shot himself.
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.
Yeah, and well, it was also for control of the drugs trade. I mean, it was really lucrative. I mean, this was at the time, like people were only starting to think of the Irish economy as the so-called Celtic tiger. I mean, it was pre-2004. So like this is when, this is before the, I suppose, the economic balloon started to appear. This is when
There was genuine economic growth in the country and things were looking fantastic for everybody. So all boats were kind of on the rising tide, including drug dealers as well as property developers and builders and everyone else who's doing well out of it. And of course, then this just unleashed this ferocious feud in essentially a relatively small city between some of these ultra-violent gangs.
We hadn't really seen... that kind of gangland violence concentrated in such a small area and sort of, and compressed into such a timescale before. So it was quite different and unusual, like, you know.
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?
I know you'd asked me that, and I still didn't look it up, but he was a teenager at the time. And his brother, Joe Keane, as well, they were, I suppose, in their early teens. And I mean, they were described as growing up in an environment of organized crime. I mean, another uncle, Sean Keane, would have been regarded as the previous kind of leader, head of Christa Keane at one point. And
They had, you know, they had a legitimate, you know, businesses that they ran in town. I think cold delivery was one of them. And Sean Keane would have been kind of seen as the financier. Now, he did get some convictions relatively late, I suppose, up to 2005. I think one was for possession of drugs. But he was really overtaken by Christy Keane.
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Chapter 3: What criminal activities is Ciarán Keane Jr. associated with?
that he's at that level. Then there's others who are, you know, managing the street dealers or they're still cutting up drugs in houses that they control, you know, and are very much hands-on. And some of these guys would have been involved in, say, some of the feud violence. over the years as well.
Like, I mean, certainly Joe Keane, you know, was convicted of manslaughter in a feud-related killing. I mean, they killed an innocent guy, but was still, you know, it was spurred on by kind of the feud hatred that was going on. And so, I mean, this is also like, and there's so many different things that are happening throughout this. I mean, like, for instance, Kieran Keane Jr.
himself would have been, you know, victim of attempts to kill him as well. Like, you know, like his partner was held hostage one time and there were attempts to lure him to a house. Laura Flanagan. Yeah, and there was attempts to lure him to a house, which was a plot to kill him, very much like the way his father was killed.
And, you know, his father had refused to make calls where they were trying to draw out other members of the gang to bring him to an ambush so they'd be killed. So, I mean, so you're growing up in this environment where you're looking over your shoulder. I mean, there's just so many incidents of violence, you know, probably some that weren't even reported that happened over that time.
that, you know, it has all the hallmarks of, I suppose, you know, hardcore gangland activity, you know, from international drug dealers.
Enraged in it, literally. And the cab app, David, reflects that.
Very much so. Like, very much so. And I mean, it's quite the read, like, you know, and even, I suppose they're going after the assets here, and that's why it's up this week, because two of the houses that were recently seized, they're due up for auction next month. They're two kind of, I suppose, former local authority houses that were bought in the Gary Owen area.
They have a reserve price of 100,000 and 120,000. And they're kind of, these are houses that would have been bought for cash one way or another. Sometimes, like in some cases, they try and disguise who's the true owner. And then they were keeping people that they knew well in it. Like, for instance, Kieran Keane's mother, Sophie, would have been picking up some of the rent from one of the people.
And one of the houses that they had, another cousin of his, Warren Hare, was... He was done for money laundering as well. He was part of the whole, I suppose, key network that were all targeted by Operation Coronation when they went after so many different people, including Warren's mother and his wife, were all prosecuted and given various sentences. Some of them were jailed. Some got...
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Chapter 4: How did the feud between Limerick gangs escalate?
the Kinahan-Hutch feud broke out, but was released in the aftermath of it and was seen in company of people that would have been later used as Kinahan hitmen. Macken we haven't seen or heard of for quite some time. I think the last time I was looking at him, he was out in Dubai.
Yeah, he got a short enough prison sentence. He was caught with seven grand cash in Limerick as well.
Again, you know, I suppose... He's always floated in and out of Limerick, hasn't he? Like he's a Belfast originally criminal.
Yeah, and he was prosecuted for a murder in Belfast in the South, but he was acquitted of that. And then he ended up in Limerick where it was one of the Ratkill traders that were trying to extort money and they used a nail gun to nail his feet to the floor. Yeah. So he got a substantial... sentence for that.
That's actually the picture that we use a lot in crime world of Macken coming out of a door. That's actually him that day coming out of Cassowary Prison in his shorts and his tattoos, looking very happy with himself to be a free man again. Of course, he did go back inside, as I mentioned. And, you know, like, I mean, you do wonder like what role he plays like in certain things.
He's obviously reasonably well trusted, I think.
Mm-hmm. The affidavit suggests how much Keane Jr. has sort of spent or him and his partner has spent.
So part of the evidence was that himself and his partner spent the equivalent of nearly 700,000, just four grand short of that from 2009 to 2020. So if you consider this as kind of money that's coming off the top of your roll, it gives you a... a hint of how much money that, you know, the keen organized crime group is making out of drugs and Limerick.
I mean, this is a staggering sum for somebody who never had a job to be... And is that just a lifestyle spend over those years?
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Chapter 5: What role did the Criminal Assets Bureau play in this case?
I mean, that was 2890. And again, I suppose that wouldn't be hugely unusual. Like his cousin, Richard Tracy, he was done the special criminal court on the back of money laundering. And that was the money he had put into his house. And again, that was a pretty high figure, which I'm quickly trying to find here now again. I should really write these things down.
It looks like the way that they, you know, they bought the houses for cash. They sometimes had left them in the previous owner's name or in someone else's name. They collected rent out of them. And people got to, often gang members got to live in them, presumably. Sounds a little bit like...
what was discovered when the Criminal Assets Bureau had a look at the Byrne organised crime gang and saw what was happening with the cars. The cars were a currency?
Yeah, and I think even with the Byrnes, and you could see there was a connection, or not a connection, but a kind of a similar, or an attempt to copy what they had, you know, in terms of having these bogey used car sales firms that were kind of used as almost like a, you know, a black market rental or,
You know, it was a carpooling system for people who wanted to, you know, who were working for the gang or gang members. They could switch it if they were getting stopped all the time. And one particular one, they'd switch again. Like we've seen that with quite a few.
And in Limerick, we had one of the biggest cab cases was the one against Bone Motors, which was described as being set up literally just to launder money for the Limerick crime gangs. And again, the Keens would have been directly involved in that. I suppose the main principles of the firm were kind of, they were seen meeting with the likes of Christy Keen and Plum McManus.
And that again was, you know, the amount of money, again, it was like 11 million it generated in two years, I think at one point. I mean, if it was a legitimate firm, like it was phenomenal success as a car firm, you know, which obviously it wasn't. There was something like 110 cars confiscated and all of that money was from the sale of those was most of it was sequestered by the state.
Then they won that case.
So Ciarán Keane Jr. is, these houses are up for sale and the last one will, the kind of more flashy one will come up for sale next year. But he is based now in Dubai?
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Chapter 6: How has Ciarán Keane Jr.'s lifestyle changed since his father's death?
But there are other people that we haven't really openly talked about, I suppose, because of the various reasons, defamation probably being one of them.
you know, who have been connected with legitimate businesses, who have stayed arm's length from the feuding gangs, but have been central to it in terms of directing what has happened, you know, over the last 25 years, you know, and brought that whole
brought that whole kind of criminal scene in Limerick to a new level where they became probably one of the most successful drugs retail operations like in the country, probably selling more drugs than anyone else per head of population. And of course then had the violent nature to hold onto it, which is why it created all the headlines.
If they'd been, you know, quietly selling drugs, we probably wouldn't have noticed, you know, and I'm sure the guys who were who were pulling the strings, without a doubt, like at that higher level, would have probably preferred that. But at the same time, I'm sure they're still shipping their drugs.
Does Ciarán Keane Jr., did he fight this case or did he just concede and not show up?
No, they did. It was contested. And there were various... affidavits went in. And I mean, separately, his partner, Laura Flanagan, like, you know, successfully argued to be allowed to stay in a house and got the stay until I think July 2027. And there was different arguments made for that.
So yeah, no, it was contested. So she basically is allowed to stay in that house, but it'll ultimately be taken from under her and sold as well and put to auction like the other two. How is, I suppose finally, things in Limerick in general amongst the criminal fraternity?
Well, we do know about that kind of bubbling under feud going on between, I suppose, the Collins, members of the Collins clan and members of a family known as the O'Donoghues in kind of Ballinacurla West in that area. We were a bit worried when Thomas O'Neill got out of prison just last month, but he's back inside again. And
Apparently he's been charged with stealing a ferret and a ferret's box and he's due back in the district court sometime.
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