Martin Foley
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Martin "The Viper" Foley (b. 1950) is one of the Republic of Ireland's most well known criminals. He rose up from a street drug dealer to be an associate of Martin Cahill, one of Ireland's most notorious criminals. He has 33 convictions [1].
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[edit] Kidnapping
Foley was kidnapped and tortured by the IRA in 1993 but was released after a gun battle in Dublin's Phoenix Park.
Although Foley was heavily associated professionally with Cahill, he was very much an independent gangster who worked mainly on his own and only formed loose alliances with other Dublin gangs.
[edit] Organised crime
Foley became head of a criminal gang in the Dublin suburb of Crumlin where he grew up and still lives today.
While Foley's gang of young mobsters single-handedly raised the overall Dublin crime rate through a spate of bank heists, robberies and drug trafficking, Foley established himself as a leading criminal at national level, forming pacts with criminal gangs all over crime ridden Dublin and even in the Irish city of Limerick. The fact that Foley was the link between Dublin and Limerick crime made him a prominent figure amongst Irish gangsters.
By the mid 1990s Foley was established as the head of organised crime in the Republic of Ireland. However despite this, Foley still remained involved in his inner circle and was said to have double crossed many gangs in order to save himself. When divisions in Irish crime gangs started to be seen in 1994, Foley was shot by a rival gang as they perceived that Foley was only using his position in other gangs to further his main criminal gang. A spate of assassinations of leading crime lords and their associates followed all over the country.
[edit] 1990s
When Martin Cahill was killed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1994 (because he was associated with a Northern Ireland unionist gang) a huge crime vacuum was left in Ireland. Foley tried to fill it by merging his main gang with several smaller gangs in the Dublin city area creating Dublin's first supergang with the central authority being Foley's Crumlin gang and with Foley being the overall head. He also merged with many of Dublin's leading crime lords.
By 1995 tensions were rising between the Dublin gang and other gangs in Limerick as they (Limerick Criminals) felt that Foley's gang were expanding throughout the country and becoming too prominent. This dispute erupted into all out gang warfare in the city which led to the assassination of many leading members of the gangs on both sides. Foley himself was also shot five times but survived. Following the killing of many of his associates including his deputy Shavo Hogan, Foley reclused to his inner Crumlin gang but still remained a huge crime figure in the country.
In late 1995, after ruling most of the Dublin crime scene indirectly through his central gang, Foley faced opposition from two other Dublin gangs that sprang up: the gang of Gerry Hutch(A.K.A. "The Monk") who specialised in armed robbery, and the gang of John Gilligan, the biggest drugs gang in the country. Foley forged good relations with Hutch's gang and even allied himself on a few robberies, but with Gilligan's gang it was a different story. Foley himself was the target of an assassination attempt by Gilligan's gang. He was shot twice in the chest and hand but recovered.
Within 6 months Gilligan's gang tripled in size and he (Gilligan) created a super gang but much more centralised than Foley's former gang with sole authority resting with Gilligan and his associate John Traynor (A.K.A. TheCoach), a fraudster and gangland figure. Foley's gang continued drug smuggling but on a much more low-key note than Gilligan's. Foley never imported drugs personally ,but had them trafficked for him.
In 1996 Gilligan's super gang collapsed following the murder of Irish crime journalist Veronica Guerin of the Sunday Independent. She reported extensively on Gilligan's gang and her murder caused national outcry in Ireland and prompted the Irish government to act. With Gilligan's gang gone, crime in Dublin lay in the hands of small area gangs with no central authority. Foley, learning his lessons from before, stepped up his drug operation and set up a huge drug trafficking and dealing gang. He distributed drugs all over Dublin through a small network directly from his Crumlin gang base. He amassed a huge amount of money but never displayed his wealth.
[edit] Public exposure
Most recently Foley has faced an even bigger challenge than retaining his post as a major drug baron: the threat of journalism. Foley is reported on extensively in the Irish media and has acclaimed national fame. One such man who has reported on Foley from the very beginning is Ireland's best known crime journalist Paul Williams. Author of several books regarding Irish criminality, crime editor of Irish tabloid newspaper the Sunday World and criminologist.
In a book about Foley, Williams had stated from Irish police sources that Foley was a police informant. After a campaign of intimidation against Williams and his family, Foley went to the courts for help to stop Williams from writing about him. He ultimately failed.
[edit] 2000s
Foley is still Ireland's biggest criminal and enjoys affiliations with all of Dublin's gangs because he is their main drug trafficker and supplier. Although he still works very much with his inner circle he is regarded as the biggest drug lord in the city. Police say it is his cleverness, ruthlessness and secretive nature that have enabled him to survive for so long in the crime career.
In 2001 Foley was the target of another assassination attempt but this time he was shot six times in the chest and lower body outside a Dublin swimming pool. Although he survived yet again, this shooting saw his influence decline in recent years with the rise of other Dublin gangs (namely the notorious West Dublin gang the Westies). After these gangs come and go Foley is always left standing as Dublin's biggest criminal who still rules his inner Crumlin gang circle with his right hand man Gavin Gunian (of Lissadel Road, Crumlin).
In late 2004 Foley's nephew Gavin Guinan was shot after a dispute with a rival gangster and in early 2005 Foley was charged with threatening a manager of a pub from which he was barred. He was sentenced to community service and two months in prison but was released after 2 hours! Then later in the year he was charged with not having any road tax, another charge to add to the list of his previous 49 convictions!
Personally Foley is said to be a good natured man with a crude sense of humour. He lives in a run down 3-bedroom house in the Dublin suburb of Crumlin with his daughters. Foley is a widower, his late wife died in 1996 from natural causes, (suspected Cancer).
He has outlived all his gangster associates and is still Dublin's biggest criminal, indirectly ruling all of the city's gangs through his network of drugs and guns.
In November 2005, following a massive rise in gangland shootings in Dublin, Foley appeared on the Irish television programme Prime Time to condemn what he called "tit-for-tat madness" and he personally appealed to the criminals to stop. In the same television interview Foley recalled the previous attempts on his life, claimed that he was a "changed man" and that he has not been involved in crime for 15 years, apart from a few minor offences.
In his last TV appearance Foley did not comment on outstanding issues such as his nephew being shot, his gang's alleged involvement in a robbery of paintings in Rossbourough House in June 2001 and what job he is currently holding. He claims that if the Gardaí believe that he is a professional criminal then "where is his money and assets".
[edit] Further reading
- Lyder, Andre. Pushers Out: The Inside Story of Dublin's Anti-Drugs Movement. Victoria, British Columbia: Trafford Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1-4120-5099-5
