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Tango one is down

Sunnyisland

Just listening to rte1 and reading in today's Irish independent.

Today he is all but forgetten but this week 20 years ago the man known as The General was dominating the news.

It was just before 3.20pm on the previous afternoon that a hitman posing as a corporation worker ended the reign  of Ireland's most feared - and colourful - criminal mastermind.

At the time of his dramatic demise, The General was the undisputed godfather of the Irish underworld who had been responsible for some of the biggest heists in the State's history.

Also referred to by the codename 'Tango One', he waged an unrelenting war against the Gardai.
The criminal underworld and the Provos went to the brink of war when the Republicans tried to extort some of the spoils from Cahill, who famously rebuffed them with the words: "If you want gold then go out and rob your own gold like we did."

The situation was calmed down when gardai arrested an entire IRA active service unit after they had kidnapped one of Cahill's lieutenants, Martin 'The Viper' Foley.

Such was his notoriety that he was the subject of no less than three movies and a bestselling book. John Boorman's award-winning movie, The General, launched the Hollywood career of Brendan Gleeson. And I may add Paul Williams career as well.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/gangland-has-completely-changed-since-the-general-was-shot-dead-20-years-ago-30517377.html

In them days it was all the general,the monk and the penguin ,it sounds like a bedtime story :-) Are today's criminals any better ? Or has anything changed at all,The general has been described as a hero/villain. what your opinions on him ?

My opinion is that the Martin Cahill story is turning into him being a Robin Hood type person,he was an eccentric man other wise just another criminal.

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Valetta

Sales of 4" nails never recovered.

smash

realies wrote: »

The general has been described as a hero/villain. what your opinions on him ?

He had a lot of honest working people living in fear. He was never a hero, he was never a 'robin hood' and he certainly was no 'ordinary decent criminal'.

fleet_admiral

He was a dirty scumbag

FTA69

The criminal underworld and the Provos went to the brink of war when the Republicans tried to extort some of the spoils from Cahill, who famously rebuffed them with the words: "If you want gold then go out and rob your own gold like we did."

Yep. And he regretted that when they riddled him outside his house with a .357 magnum.

Martin Cahill was a scumbag and a thug who was far from a Robin Hood character. While not a direct seller of drugs himself he had money tied up in that business and was totally and utterly amoral, like the rest of them to be honest. He wasn't some noble breed of criminal. Members of his gang were even worse.

One of his men was molesting and raping and his own daughter and Cahill threatened to have the family killed when they went to the police; they later had to go to the INLA for protection. Another of his lieutenants, Martin Foley, is a notorious scumbag as well. On top of this Cahill also tried to extort and bully hotdog vendors in Dublin, seriously assaulting a number of working class men who worked hard to make a living. Worst of all, he was collaborating with the UVF who were up to their neck in sectarian murder and who had recently tried to blow up a pub full of people in Dublin.

I'm from a council estate and can say with certainty that this concept of the "ODC" is nothing but a myth. They more often than not are violent, sociopathic tramps who make life a misery for the decent people around them.

Good riddance to Cahill and anyone like him.

Menas

Complete total and utter scumbag. We are wasting bytes talking about him.

Wossack

heard on the radio one of the rags were doing some special on Cahill, and was wondering why

20 years on? doesnt deserve to be remembered 1 month on

FloatingVoter

Cahill was a violent idiot who tried playing both sides off each other up North. The surprise wasn't that he got shot, its that it should have happened ten years earlier. Whether it was the IRA / UVF / The Guards / half the heads in Dublin that did him in doesn't bother anybody.

godtabh

I lived in an estate with a lot of senior gardai lived. On my road alone there was a couple of superintendents. He slashed all the tyres on the road. Cost my dad a fortune. Whats worse I couldnt get to my football match the next day

NotASheeple

realies wrote: »

The criminal underworld and the Provos went to the brink of war when the Republicans tried to extort some of the spoils from Cahill, who famously rebuffed them with the words: "If you want gold then go out and rob your own gold like we did."

Brink of war my arse, I'm afraid you're reading too much works of fiction. Cahill made the fatal mistake of involving himself with the UVF. And after the UVF tried to bomb the Widows Scallan's pub in May 1994. Cahill got the bullet 3 months later.

smash

FTA69 wrote: »

Yep. And he regretted that when they riddled him outside his house with a .357 magnum.

Except that didn't happen. He wasn't killed outside his house!

[Deleted User]

NotASheeple wrote: »

Brink of war my arse, I'm afraid you're reading too much works of fiction.

The aura certain journos try to create around some scumbags is pretty hilarious. More hilarious that people swallow it.

L'Enfer du Nord

More interested in how much Ranelagh (where Cahill was shot) has changed in 20 years. Not that it was generally rough then, but there were a lot of bedsits and other rented accommodation, always a few homeless people around the triangle a ****ty night club called night owls and Jason's snooker hall. Now look at the place. Despite the recession the Ranelaghfication of the city continues, it's spread from D six to D eight and now Manor Street. Meanwhile the Martin Cahills of this world are more likely to be found outside the M50.

MS.ing

thought this was gonna be about a messed up US marine helicopter mission gone wrong

Menas

L'Enfer du Nord wrote: »

More interested in how much Ranelagh (where Cahill was shot) has changed in 20 years. Not that it was generally rough then, but there were a lot of bedsits and other rented accommodation, always a few homeless people around the triangle a ****ty night club called night owls and Jason's snooker hall. Now look at the place. Despite the recession the Ranelaghfication of the city continues, it's spread from D six to D eight and now Manor Street. Meanwhile the Martin Cahills of this world are more likely to be found outside the M50.

Rathmines has not changed a bit though....

Beano

realies wrote: »

...

Such was his notoriety that he was the subject of no less than three movies and a bestselling book. John Boorman's award-winning movie, The General, launched the Hollywood career of Brendan Gleeson. And I may add Paul Williams career as well.

I've seen The General and Ordinary Decent Criminal but what the third one?

FloatingVoter

Beano wrote: »

I've seen The General and Ordinary Decent Criminal but what the third one?

The little toerag even has his own IMDB page.

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0019386/

Download them illegally.

Beano

FloatingVoter wrote: »

The little toerag even has his own IMDB page.

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0019386/

Download them illegally.

I will. Its what he would have wanted.

suicide_circus

FTA69 wrote: »

Yep. And he regretted that when they riddled him outside his house with a .357 magnum.

Martin Cahill was a scumbag and a thug who was far from a Robin Hood character. While not a direct seller of drugs himself he had money tied up in that business and was totally and utterly amoral, like the rest of them to be honest. He wasn't some noble breed of criminal. Members of his gang were even worse.

One of his men was molesting and raping and his own daughter and Cahill threatened to have the family killed when they went to the police; they later had to go to the INLA for protection. Another of his lieutenants, Martin Foley, is a notorious scumbag as well. On top of this Cahill also tried to extort and bully hotdog vendors in Dublin, seriously assaulting a number of working class men who worked hard to make a living. Worst of all, he was collaborating with the UVF who were up to their neck in sectarian murder and who had recently tried to blow up a pub full of people in Dublin.

I'm from a council estate and can say with certainty that this concept of the "ODC" is nothing but a myth. They more often than not are violent, sociopathic tramps who make life a misery for the decent people around them.

Good riddance to Cahill and anyone like him.

Ah yes, the provos, big hard men

FloatingVoter

suicide_circus wrote: »

Ah yes, the provos, big hard men

Nope, exactly the same as MC, cowardly bullying thugs. Any UVF supporters can jump into the same boat. If it sinks, meh.

Tilly

He was a fúcking scumbag. My uncle was on the Garda team trying to take him down and my other uncles (who had nothing to do with the guards) car was burnt out outside his house. With a letter through the letterbox telling him to get his brother off his back. Pure scum!

Dyr

I'm amazed there are so many posters on boards who were moving in martin cahills circles 20 years ago.

Impressive

smellmepower

All the so called ODC's are just extortionate scumbags at the end of the day.Used to work for a charity based in the North Inner City in the mid 90's,and a diminutive,very well known crime figure,well liked and regarded as an ODC in the area (name rhymes with funk) repeatedly threatened to burn our offices to the ground unless we paid him protection money.Just moved offices in the end.

FloatingVoter

Bambi wrote: »

I'm amazed there are so many posters on boards who were moving in martin cahills circles 20 years ago.

Impressive

Some of us are 40ish and above and living in Dublin. It's not a shocking statistic. Breaking news, Dublin is a small town.

FloatingVoter

smellmepower wrote: »

All the so called ODC's are just extortionate scumbags at the end of the day.Used to work for a charity based in the North Inner City in the mid 90's,and a diminutive,very well known crime figure,well liked and regarded as an ODC in the area (name rhymes with funk) repeatedly threatened to burn our offices to the ground unless we paid him protection money.Just moved offices in the end.

Is Gerry H. still in the taxi business ? Just to prove the above point.

FTA69

smash wrote: »

Except that didn't happen. He wasn't killed outside his house!

It did really. He had just gotten into his car and was shot less than a minute's drive down the road.

RollieFingers

FTA69 wrote: »

It did really. He had just gotten into his car and was shot less than a minute's drive down the road.

So not outside his house then?

smash

FTA69 wrote: »

It did really. He had just gotten into his car and was shot less than a minute's drive down the road.

No he wasn't. He lived in Cowper Downs in Rathmines and frequented another house in Swan Grove in Rathmines(his wife's sister). He was shot on Charleston Road heading from Ranelagh towards Rathmines. The movie didn't tell the truth.

FloatingVoter

He owned both houses. Was banging both sisters. And got done on the road outside his house. If the CAB had been in existence at the time, he wouldn't have owned the house. The movie that Boorman (Gleeson starring in) made had a few errors in but they got the sisters and the locations right.

Menas

FloatingVoter wrote: »

He owned both houses. Was banging both sisters. And got done on the road outside his house. If the CAB had been in existence at the time, he wouldn't have owned the house. The movie that Boorman (Gleeson starring in) made had a few errors in but they got the sisters and the locations right.

Have a look at the pictures in this link.
http://www.broadsheet.ie/2012/08/18/aftermath/

That is the junction of oxford road and Charleston road in the period just after he was shot.

That is not cowper downs where he lived with his wife.

smash

FloatingVoter wrote: »

He owned both houses. Was banging both sisters. And got done on the road outside his house. If the CAB had been in existence at the time, he wouldn't have owned the house. The movie that Boorman (Gleeson starring in) made had a few errors in but they got the sisters and the locations right.

Here's where he was done:
http://comeheretome.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/general.jpeg

Charleston road, Ranelagh.