The conviction and jailing of Brian Rattigan represent a major victory for this country, for the law, the gardai and the decent citizens of Crumlin and Drimnagh.

In my former role as detective superintendent at Pearse Street garda station, I dealt with the Rattigan gang and their mortal enemies, the mob led by 'Fat' Freddie Thompson.

Indeed, gardai under my command made the drugs seizure at the Holiday Inn in 2001, which led to Rattigan murdering Declan Gavin.

This developed into the bloodiest feud since the tit-for- tat killings in the North of Ireland, shot out in the Dublin garda districts of Crumlin and Kevin Street.

Henchmen

It involved one-time boozing pals but now mortal enemies.

Even when they 'worked' and partied together, Rattigan and 'Fat' Freddie Thompson surrounded themselves with a selection of henchmen and enforcers. But the cracks in their friendship began to appear with the burning of a bike belonging to Declan Gavin, one of the mob.

The feud proper started with the seizure of a large quantity of drugs at the Holiday Inn by the Pearse Street Garda Drug Unit, led by then Sergeant Seamus Boland and his team who were under my command in the year 2000.

Declan Gavin was blamed for touting to the Garda but, for the record, it was not him at all. By the way, a tout is the term used in the Dublin underworld for an informer.

Once blood was spilt, the feud developed rapidly, and presented a major security challenge for the gardai.

The 14 subsequent killings are well documented. Each has been the subject of a major investigation.

Rattigan came to the fore as the killer of Gavin, but his name repeatedly crossed my desk in subsequent years.

For the first now he can now be named as the person who ordered the 2004 murder of Paul Warren in Grays Public House in Newmarket Square, just off Cork Street.

He directed the murder of Warren from his prison cell, using an illegally obtained phone to ring individuals in the south inner city before the killing.

With my then Detective Inspector Gabriel O'Gara, who has now taken my position in the South Central Division as the Detective Superintendent, I can tell you that they were not easy times. We had incidents and alerts 24 hours in the day at stages.

It did not matter, you stayed with the task as long as it took, tired but unbowed, and my team on Rattigan and Thompson's were the best people you could want.

If the people of Ireland could only realise the effort that goes into a murder investigation, away from family, sleeping on a chair in the office, getting a coffee and starting again.

The analysis of statements and the amount of information that comes in to be scrutinised would cause trouble for the financial people if it was money.

I, with my team, dealt with the gang members, the ones who wanted to hide and the ones who wanted to come to the fore, to try and expose their power.

Gardai put their lives on the line to take down Rattigan. In once shocking incident, the now convicted Rattigan fired five shots at my team near Landesdown Valley in Drimnagh after a high speed pursuit.

My officers were extremely brave, capturing and convicting him.

He received a short sentence which was appealed and then he was given a larger sentence.

Thug

But the killings continued, year on year. Fifteen people have now died in this feud, including an innocent man.

More violence may occur, unless Rattigan can be cut off from his contacts in the city.

I would recommend that this thug has no use of a mobile phone behind bars.

But his conviction could take the lid of the pressure cooker off this feud.

Fat Freddie is currently staying away from Ireland and Rattigan is looking at the best part of his life in prison.

I look forward to all of his enforcers being put down. And rest assured they will be.

- PJ Browne