Wayne Dundon unleashed a reign of terror on the Ballinacurra Weston community
A YOUNG man lifts the leg of his trousers to proudly show a clear bullet wound that must have just missed his groin.
“Ger Dundon did that. He was messing with a gun and he shot me. He was just kidding around,” he says.
Other scars left by the Dundon brothers are more deeply embedded in the community they destroyed.
To those passing through, Hyde Road would appear to be an ordinary main thoroughfare out of the city of Limerick and towards affluent suburbs like Patrickswell.
Local authority houses line the main road and behind it are the streets of Ballinacurra Weston, the notorious one time stronghold of the evil Dundon gang.
The brothers are gone now; Wayne, John and Dessie are serving life sentences for murder and Ger is living in fear in the UK after being warned he would be killed if he set foot here again.
But while they do porridge for their murderous crimes the stamp of Murder Inc on the city remains and it seems that a return to bloodshed never far from their air.
“Could you get me a gun?,” I ask a former Dundon cohort who says he is trying to go straight now.
“I can get you one in 10 minutes,” he tells me. “It’s a bit damaged. The spring is gone. The wrong ammo was used it in. It can only shoot one round at a time. But I could make a call and get it for you now.”
“How much?,” I ask.
“€1,500. But give me a few days and I will get you a better one.” I am under no illusion but I am being diddled. No doubt there are a few middle men getting a cut from my money.
“Can I get ammo with it,” I ask.
“Yeah. I’ll get you some ‘baby 9s’,” he says.
Guns have been the stock trade in Ballinacurra Weston for years and men, like the one I am talking too, have been soldiers for the gang lords and drug dealers since they were teenagers. One head has been removed from the beast, but a lost generation here know no other life.
Many acted out of fear on instruction from their dangerous overlords. Many are glad they were locked up when the Dundons murdered Roy Collins as they know they would have acted on orders had they got the call.
“Wayne Dundon was an evil b*****d. He used to knock on my door and push me aside and drag my sons out of bed to do his bidding. We were all terrified of him. Absolutely terrified,” one woman tells me. “He dragged many young men into his world and they were too frightened to say no. Hopefully they can find a fresh path now he is locked up.”
In this community you will find sympathy for young men like James Dillon who was jailed for life for the cowardly murder of Roy Collins. He was the gunman who fired the fatal bullets into the 35 year old after taking orders from Wayne Dundon from his jail cell.
“Roy Collins was an innocent man and what happened to that family was dreadful,” a mother tells me. “But guys like James Dillon – they were just stupid young men who were too afraid to say no to Wayne Dundon.”