Senior Kinahan gang crime figure jailed for 24 years by Dublin court

Sean McGovern pleaded guilty to two charges relating to a deadly feud after being extradited from the UAE

A leader of the notorious Kinahan criminal cartel has been sentenced to 24 years in prison at a Dublin court.

Sean McGovern, 40, who has been described as senior lieutenant in the group, pleaded guilty to two charges of directing the activities of a criminal organisation relating to a deadly feud between the Kinahan and Hutch criminal gangs.

McGovern, who had been extradited from the United Arab Emirates to face trial in Ireland, had been shot in the feud, the court heard.

The charges related to his involvement in the lead-up to the murder of Noel Kirwan, a grandfather who was shot dead in December 2016, and the targeting and monitoring of James Gately with a view to a shooting which did not take place.

Last month a sentencing hearing was told that McGovern wanted to apologise for the hurt as a consequence of his actions.

At the special criminal court in Dublin on Monday, the three-judge panel sentenced him to 24 years – backdated to his arrest in Dubai on an Interpol red notice in October 2024.

After considering mitigating factors including an early plea, Mr Justice McGrath said the sentences for the separate offences should run consecutively.

McGovern was sentenced to 10 years for his role in directing activities relating to the planned murder of Gately and 14 years for his role in the lead-up to the killing of Kirwan.

McGrath said the court established that McGovern was a senior member of the Kinahan gang, who was a “confidant of those in the higher echelons” in the organisation who placed a “high degree of trust and competence” in him.

The judge said that the Kinahan gang was a “particularly large, well-organised sinister and dangerous organisation”.

He said the court had no doubt that McGovern, holding a relatively senior position of the gang, was fully aware of its identity, structure and nature.

McGrath said: “Mr McGovern knew in each instance he was directing preparations for murder and did so intentionally.”

DS Dave Gallagher said the sentencing should be a “lesson to those who glorify organised crime and promote it as a way of life”.

He said it was “significant in holding to account a key person who was engaged in directing the activities of a violent criminal organisation engaged in a campaign of ruthless murder and violence which impacted so negatively on our communities and Ireland’s national reputation.”

Speaking of McGovern’s victim, Gallagher said: “I wish to pay tribute to the Kirwan family whose innocent father, Noel, was brutally murdered, for no other reason except to portray power in the criminal underworld, by Sean McGovern, working with and directing others, who believed they were untouchable.”

He added: “There are no untouchables, and law enforcement is committed to the pursuit and prosecution of those who are the leaders, the decision-makers and the facilitators.

The UAE has become a base for Irish criminals and their associates partly because the state has no extradition treaty with the EU. But after a decade of lobbying by Irish officials, an extradition treaty became operational last May.

It was not retrospective and did not apply to McGovern but authorities in both jurisdictions made a separate, one-off arrangement to transfer the suspect. McGovern was shot in the stomach in 2016 when a rival gang’s hit team stormed a Kinahan-organised boxing weigh-in at a Dublin hotel.