Gangster Ian 'Mad Dog' Maloney at centre of violent feud with pal of Conor McGregor

Gardaí are seeking to speak to Maloney in relation to the feud, and heavily-armed officers raided his home on Friday – but he wasn’t there.

Maloney (34), who has around 80 convictions and is known as a violent criminal, is feuding with a Crumlin drug dealer whose family home was shot at in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Associates of the Crumlin dealer are believed to have been behind a petrol-bomb attack in Kilmainham on Thursday evening.

They were intending to target a female relative of Maloney but got the wrong apartment of an innocent family with no link to the feud.

Hours later a car belonging to a pal of Maloney was then petrol bombed in the Pimlico area of Dublin 8.

Then, in a third petrol bomb attack, thugs set fire to the home of an innocent woman who is related to Maloney on Cashel Road , Crumlin, at 10pm on Friday night. No one was in the house at the time of the attack.

The Crumlin-based drug dealer targeted by Maloney is a close pal of Conor McGregor. The UFC star is not involved in the feud and has no involvement in criminality.

However, the target regularly drinks in McGregor’s pub, The Black Forge, which itself was targeted in a petrol-bomb attack last month.

McGregor’s pal cannot be named as he is currently before the courts.

He has various convictions, including for drug dealing, and is a close associate of criminal Jonathan Murray, who was a one-time friend of Maloney but has fallen out with him in recent times.

Jonathan Murray and Maloney were previously jailed for their involvement in a violent attack on a man in a Dublin fast-food restaurant in 2009.

There have been several incidents linked to the feud before this week and one line of inquiry is that it was sparked off by a row in a pub.

Since then, both sides have been taunting each other and making allegations against each other on social media, escalating with the gun attack and firebomb attacks this week.

Gardaí suspect Maloney, originally from Cashel Road, Crumlin, may have been behind a gun attack on the family home of McGregor’s pal on Downpatrick Road in Crumlin at 12.25am on Thursday, when a gunman fired up to seven shots at the house.

Gardaí found a getaway car believed to have been used by the gunman close to Maloney’s home.

Gardaí are now looking to speak to Maloney over the feud, but he has gone to ground in recent days.

Hours after the gun attack on Downpatrick Road, thugs carried out a petrol-bomb attack on a property on Sarsfield Road, in Kilmainham.

It is understood the thugs were intending to target a property of a female relative of Maloney when they carried out the attack.

However, they got the wrong property and instead petrol bombed the apartment of an innocent family unconnected to the feud. They were inside the property at the time but were not injured in the incident.

Maloney, who was once pals with his rival, has been taunting him over the attacks on social media calling him “the biggest wankster [sic] in Crumlin” and said he would “wipe the floor” with him.

Maloney’s rival also posted social media messages taunting Maloney after the first petrol-bomb attack, saying: “It’s 1 all now an counting” and “get the police to put it out you’re lucky ya weren’t there”.

However, he later discovered it was the wrong apartment and is believed to have orchestrated a petrol-bomb attack on a vehicle belonging to an associate of Maloney.

There was a third firebomb attack on Friday night when thugs targeted the home of another innocent relative of Maloney on Cashel Road around 10pm. No one was injured in that attack but extensive damage was caused.

Gardaí fear further attacks are being planned.

Maloney has been involved in crime from a very young age and was known for carrying out violent attacks. He worked as an enforcer for ‘Fat’ Freddie Thompson and was involved in the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud and other feuds in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Associates of Maloney had ordered the murder of Ian Kenny, who died in 2009 after spending two years in a coma following a gun attack in 2007.

Maloney had been in a dispute with Kenny and his associates had been behind a previous attempt on his life.

It is understood Maloney told Thompson’s mob that Kenny was a Garda informer. The gang then recruited Kenny’s pal Jonathan Dunne, who owed them a drug debt, to carry out the killing.

In an incident in August 2008, Maloney threatened to burn a Garda alive and fill him full of bullets after he stopped and searched him outside his house.

Maloney served a number of lengthy prison cells, including a 12-year sentence for the armed robbery of Paul Sheeran Jewellers in Dundrum Town Centre in September 2008.

While serving that sentence he was also given a prison sentence for assaulting Joey O’Brien in Charlie’s Restaurant, Dame Street, on January 4, 2009.

O’Brien, who subsequently became a supergrass in a gangland murder trial, was left with a broken jaw, smashed teeth and a broken eye socket after the attack.

Jonathan Murray, who was then an associate of Maloney, was also involved in the attack on O’Brien and received an 18-month sentence for it.

Since his release from prison Maloney is believed to be running a network of foot soldiers for the cartel in Dublin.

Heavily armed gardaí raided his home in 2020 as part of an operation targeting the Kinahan cartel’s Dublin network.