User reviews

As I write this, there are almost daily reports on growing gang warfare in my home city of Glasgow and its neighbouring city of Edinburgh. That said, at least to date, these incidents seem like schoolyard disagreements when set against the feud outlined in this four-part BBC series.

It starts with shocking actual video footage of a murder at Dublin's since renamed Regency Hotel some 9 years ago, when disguised gunmen disrupted the televised weigh-in of an upcoming championship boxing match. The target was one Daniel Kinahan, a long-time Irish gang-boss, who'd come to power, as it were, under the wing of his father Christy and alongside brother Christy Jr. But who couldn't resist the lure of boxing, despite knowing he had enemies looking to see him whacked, to use the vernacular. Kinahan escaped that day, but one of his trusted lieutenants didn't, having his face shot off in the process, triggering a major escalation in the gang war with the Kinahans' deadly rivals, the Hutch family. The irony was that at one time, the Hutch's had been allies, indeed, underlings of the Kinahans but as is often the case, the need for greed and power caused a split between the two groups.

From this dramatic opening, the story rewinds to how it all began with contributions from brave on-screen present and former police officers and journalists, although one or two of them understandably only do so with their identities concealed. Tellingly, I don't think I remember any input from anyone from the Kinahan faction although a few cohorts from the competing Hutch / Boyle wing do appear on camera, naturally denying any criminal affiliations on their part.

One thing that amazed me watching the media coverage of the conflict was the way it was covered by the Irish press who repeatedly and without impugnity splashed the names and images of the parties concerned all over their publications, perhaps reflecting the old dictum that crime sells, but more chiming in with the general public's disgust for these mega-rich gangsters profiting from their illegal drug and gun-trade. These people have no Robin Hood or Bonnie and Clyde-type romanticism surrounding them, they come across simply as jumped-up hoodlums looking to profit from the misery of others, living like kings and ruling with a rod of iron.

As their story comes up to date, it centres mainly on the eldest son Daniel. It's him, after all, who was the target of the botched hit at the Regency. In bloody retaliation, he has allegedly taken out 16 people connected to his would-be assassins. It seems however, that for all his wealth and power, he can't resist the limelight as we see him set up a boxing management group with its own state-of-the-art gym in Marbella, building up an impressive stable of fighters, including the self-proclaimed "Gypsy King" world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. However he makes the mistake of crossing a feisty Mexican rival by poaching his fighter, leading to an expensive court case. More importantly, Kinahan connects his organisation to a worldwide crime syndicate, effectively as guns-for-hire, which brings him to the attention of the heavy-duty U. S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

As the final episode ended, I felt certain that this notorious crime-boss and his gang would get their comeuppance but in this I was disappointed. It seems that he's gone back into hiding in Dubai but there is a feeling that he's on borrowed time and that the law will catch up with him soon.

I was really hooked by this stranger-than-fiction, rags-to-unearned-riches tale of this notorious gangland dynasty. At times my head was spinning trying to keep tabs on all of the people involved in this world-wide operation although it was pleasing to see at least some of them take a fall and end up in prison. I was also full of admiration for the endeavour and courage of the various law enforcement officers and reporters pursuing the Kinahans' slimy trail with special mention going to Irish crime-reporter Veronica Guerin who was murdered in the course of her investigations.

Let's hope that the head of the snake is cut off once and for all in the near future to add one concluding episode to this shockingly revealing series.

The Irish TV drama 'Kin' won some praise, but to me it felt a bit cliched, lacking in specifics, and presenting its tale of organised crime as a family affair that elided the moral responsibility of its protagonists. But it was loosely based on an actual crime family, the Kinahans, and it turns out their true story is a lot more interesting than the TV series. In this documentary, one sees something of what they did and how they did it, often in surprisingly full view of Ireland's media (with journalists who covered the story participants in the programme). One also gets a very clear sense of the Kinahans' moral awfulness, kindred or not, and eqaully grimly, of their seeming impunity from the law.