17 Facts About Martin Cahill

Martin Cahill was an Irish crime boss from Dublin.

Martin Cahill masterminded a series of burglaries and armed robberies.

Martin Cahill was shot and killed while out on bail for kidnapping charges.

Martin Cahill was born in a slum district in Grenville Street in Dublin's north inner city, the second of twelve surviving children of Patrick Cahill, a lighthouse-keeper, and Agnes Sheehan.

Martin Cahill was sent to a Christian Brothers School on the same road where he lived but was playing truant and committing frequent burglaries with his brothers.

Martin Cahill, then serving a four-year suspended prison sentence, fought through the courts to prevent his neighbourhood's destruction.

Martin Cahill was involved in stealing some of the world's most valuable paintings from Russborough House and extorting restaurants and hot dog vendors in Dublin's nightclub district.

In early 1993, John "The Coach" Traynor, met his boss Martin Cahill, to provide him with inside information about the inner workings of the National Irish Bank head office and branch at College Green, Dublin.

On 1 November 1993, Martin Cahill's gang seized Lacey and his wife outside his home in Blackrock.

Martin Cahill then planned with Kavanagh to "raid" Kavanagh's home, and show intent to kill the Lacey family by shooting Kavanagh in the leg.

The reasons cited were Martin Cahill's alleged involvement with a Portadown unit of the Ulster Volunteer Force.

The IRA further alleged that Martin Cahill had been involved in selling the stolen Vermeer paintings from Russborough House to the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade led by Billy Wright, alias "King Rat".

When Martin Cahill allegedly tried to extort protection money from them, the Gardai believe that Traynor and Gilligan approached the IRA and accused Martin Cahill of importing heroin, a drug that the IRA despised and were trying to prevent from being sold in Dublin.

Martin Cahill denied that he was ever involved in drug dealing; however, his brother Peter was convicted of supplying heroin in the 1980s.

Martin Cahill was married to Frances Lawless with whom he fathered five children.

However, it is believed that Martin Cahill had, with Frances' approval, a mistress in his wife's younger sister Tina Lawless, with whom Martin Cahill is believed to have fathered a further four children.

Boorman himself once had his home burgled by Martin Cahill, who stole the gold record which Boorman had won for the Deliverance soundtrack.