I'm after smashing Gilligan...Seen him on the road in bits, I don't give a f**k

A 25-YEAR-OLD man “smashed” a nephew of con- victed drug dealer John Gilligan with his van, dragging him for up to 30 feet before leaving him on the roadside with a fractured skull and pelvis, a court heard.

- BY FIONA MAGENNIS

At the sentencing hearing of Ryan Craig yesterday, the Central Criminal Court was told there had been longstanding animosity between him and the victim, Dillon Gilligan, arising from an ongoing “feud” in the Ronanstown area of Dublin.

Following the incident, Craig was overheard on the phone saying: “I'm after smashing Gilligan... Seen him on the road in bits. I don't give a f**k bro.” He was later arrested by gardai on a UK-bound ferry at Dublin Port.

The court heard the attack was “opportunistic” rather than “pre-planned”.

Craig, of Shancastle Drive, Clondalkin, had originally been charged with the attempted murder of Mr Gilligan but pleaded guilty to the lesser offences of dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm and endangerment in July.

Detective Garda Shane Harten gave evidence to Michael Hourigan SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, that he had been on patrol with colleagues at around 1.45pm on October 20, 2024, when they received a report that a van had knocked down a man on Cloverhill Road in Clondalkin.