Gang boss 'Red Larry McCarthy' launches prison 'dirty' protest as he awaits murder trial

The Limerick criminal, once regarded as the leader of the McCarthy/Dundon faction, has staged his protest in the high security Portlaoise in a bid to get transferred to a different landing

It is not the first time McCarthy has used the tactic while locked up.

In one incident in 2017 he launched a one-man dirty protest after a violent row with another Limerick gangster.

He smeared himself with faeces and blocked a sink to flood a cell in protest after being put in protective custody.

After spending 10 years in a UK prison for weapons possession, McCarthy ended back behind bars in Ireland for the 2015 brutal beating of a man over compo claims for a traffic accident.

He was released in 2019 but soon afterwards he was charged with the attempt on veteran gangster Christy Keane's life in 2015 and remanded in custody

He is due to go on trial at the Special Criminal Court in October 2023 with two other men.

Keane survived the assassination bid despite being hit four times with bullets as he fled from his car parked at the University of Limerick.

Red Larry didn't do his time in prison quietly getting in conflict with other inmates and staff members.

In November 2018 he clashed with a Limerick lifer in Cork Prison in which he suffered a number of slash wounds, according to sources.

It was claimed that the row was sparked over accusations that an innocent person had been put under pressure to smuggle contraband into the prison.

In a separate incident at the Midlands Prison Red Larry and associates clashed with a Dublin crime gang as the rival outfits tried to assert their dominance.

Six prison officers were injured during the brawl which involved a total of 18 inmates.

McCarthy also fell out with other Limerick gangsters in the prison when they failed to back him after he was attacked by an inmate wielding a homemade knife.

He wanted help in giving the offending prisoner a beating but they declined to get involved in the plot.

McCarthy had been in custody since July 2015 while he was awaiting trial for making threats to kill his brother-in-laws' father Noel Moore of which he was later acquitted.

The attack happened after the victim had been hit by a motorcyclist while cycling his bike.

The motorcyclist persuaded him not to go to the gardaí after offering to pay him €5,000 in compo and later called him to arrange for the cash to be paid over.

Instead he was confronted by a group of men including McCarthy.

He said that McCarthy told him he was "getting no money".

Foran stated that he then got a "slap off a baseball bat into the back of the head" and an "unmerciful beating".

He said that Larry McCarthy stabbed him in the leg with a knife.

The injured man later tried to withdraw his statement after he appeared in court on a separate matter where he met McCarthy and realised who he was.

McCarthy lost an appeal against his conviction but later won another appeal that saw 15 months taken off his six-year sentence.

In April 2018 a court ordered that his 10-year-old BMW convertible be returned after it was seized by gardaí investigating the shooting of Christy Keane.

His lawyers argued that it was unfair and unreasonable that he continued to be deprived of the vehicle which had dropped in value since being taken.