Ireland is now a safer place after smashing of gangland scourge

The Beast from the East

- JOHN KIERANS

ALTHOUGH it doesn't always feel like it at times, we are all now living in the second most peaceful country in the world after Iceland.

That is according to the Global Peace Index which monitors crime and violence all over the planet.

We might whinge about the gardai or the outgoing Commissioner Drew Harris but in fairness they have done, and are doing, one hell of a job.

Over the last decade or two this country was riddled by gangland violence and barely a week went by without someone being murdered.

There seemed to be no prices on life and fellas were willing to carry out killings for as little as €500.

Some working-class areas were no go zones and ran by the gangs who ruled them.

It was a living hell for the silent majority of the law-abiding citizens living in these grim places and they were afraid to speak out in case it cost them their lives.

The fingerprints of the Kinahan crime organisation were at one stage all over the country but thankfully not any more.