George ‘Penguin’ Mitchell’s money mule among team of criminals and GAA stars set for charity match

Ross Hanway is part of a 10-man team chosen by eight-time All-Ireland-winning footballer Philly McMahon and comedian Rory O’Connor to train for a match against prison officers in Mountjoy as part of the RTÉ series ‘Gaelic in the Joy’

Today, we can reveal who some of the inmates are and what they’re doing time for, although they are set for release soon as they’re currently housed in the jail’s progression unit.

Among them is Ross Hanway who is serving a sentence for his role in a money-laundering ring working for The Penguin’s gang.

Also playing are Charlie Coyle (59), a former publican from Cootehill, Co. Cavan.

He was caught transporting €2.5 million worth of drugs in his transit van when stopped in Lusk, Co. Dublin, on April 24, 2020, after Gardaí mounted a surveillance operation when acting on confidential information.

Coyle had 20 previous convictions, 10 for road traffic and the remainder were licensing law offences from a time when he operated a pub. He got eight years in jail for his drugs offences.

The truck driver, Latvian national Dmitrijs Venskovics (45), was also jailed for eight years.

Coyle told Gardaí he was buying and selling various items such as vegetables and hand sanitisers using his van. He said he was given directions to pick up these boxes and was getting instructions on where he should take them. He said he was to be paid €2,000 for transporting them.

He stood out from the rest of his prison team mates given his age, as the rest were mostly in their 20s and early 30s.

“I’m just glad to be playing, to tell you the truth. If I don’t pull something I definitely won’t run out of steam,” Coyle said on the programme.

He admits prison has been difficult for him.

“When you’re used to running about and going out through any door you want, you know? Like it’s hard, very very hard.”

Also taking part in the show is a childhood friend of Rory O’Connor’s, Ross Hanway.

The 33-year-old grew up in the comedian’s hometown of Ashbourne, Co. Meath, and was last October jailed for four years for money laundering.

Hanway was getting €4,000 a month as part of trio who were involved in a money laundering operation for a criminal gang which had an income of almost €12 million during 2019.

He pleaded guilty to possessing €412,000 on May 26, 2020, which was the proceeds of crime.

“Things that happened in my life were like the domino effect and the perfect storm so to speak, was like one thing after another after another after another,” Hanway told his old pal O’Connor on the show.

“So basically when I was young I got this thing into my head that I wasn’t good enough for my family. This is the furthest thing from the truth. So 18, 19, 20, and you know my dad doesn’t drink, so anything me dad was saying to me, don’t do this or that, I’d do the polar opposite.

“Dabbled in cocaine at a young age and then went away from it. At 21 me head just went bang. I nosedived head into drink and drugs. That was my coping mechanism to escape my problems. Once I was doing those things I wasn’t thinking. My brain just flatlined.

“Every time I’d have a pint I’d be on the coke. Chaos. That was my coping mechanism, just numb me brain, switch off and you’re not thinking about anything.”

He confirms the money was his motivation.

“That was to feed the addiction. I was never going out acting the f**king gangster. I kept meself to meself, a quiet lad... ​

When I did get arrested I was actually happy, ‘great it’s over now’.

Beautiful blue sky day. It was one of the nicest days in the lockdown in May. I just seen blue nights, then next thing boxed in, two passenger doors open, guns pointed at your head. Hands up, dragged out of the car. It was just relief. I genuinely felt great. That’s it. That’s the end of it now.”

He says that he can now see the error of his ways.

“Throughout the day you’re reminded quite frequently that you’re in prison. You’re walking around a yard with f**king barbed wire everywhere and metal fences, you look out your window there’s metal bars,” he reflects.

“When you wake in the morning you sometimes forget where you are. You open your eyes and go ‘b*****ks, still in this kip’. Welcome to prison. That’s what you get for being a bold boy.”

Craig Jackson (22), from Dundalk, had 49 previous convictions when he was jailed in January last year for the theft of over €13,000 worth of jewellery during a burglary in Co. Louth.

He was linked to the crime through a perfect match with fingerprints found on a window ledge, which was the point of entry. Among items taken were an 18-carat engagement ring, diamond ring, other rings, a bracelet and necklace, and five watches.

None of the property was ever recovered and Jackson, whose convictions included four other burglaries, was handed a three-and-a half-year sentence, with the final 18 months suspended.

Jackson, who had been a GAA player with Na Piarsaigh in Dundalk, explained on the programme how he got into his life of crime.

“Just started hanging around with the wrong people,” he recollects. “One thing led to another, I stopped playing, stopped playing football, boxing, hurling then ended up doing stuff I shouldn’t have been doing. Been in here since I’ve been 18.

“This time, I’ve learned... I won’t be back. I’m fed up waking up every morning looking around and its the same thing. I want to get out and get a job, just get back on the straight and narrow again. Just fed up now.”

During his time inside he has been involved in several fights.

“I don’t like fighting but if I need to fight I’ll fight, do you know what I mean,” he stresses.

“The first fight I had was over the snooker table, first week in. I’d say the worse one was Cloverhill. Got jumped. Seven people. When I got up then, shoe marks all over my face. All me tracksuit was covered in blood. Then I went to a different landing, I was only on that landing two or three days and I was fighting again.”

He blames drugs for his behaviour and tried to apologise to his victims.

“Everyone’s done bad things before, nobody’s perfect,” he insists. “That’s when I was taking tablets and all. I don’t really remember much about it. When I got charged with it and then when I was reading the charge I realised what I had done wasn’t right like.

“I told them I’d write a letter to the people that I done it to. Said they didn’t want it. I did bad stuff on the tablets like. You don’t be thinking of what you’re doing until the next day. You don’t even remember what you did cos like they make you forget.”

Brandon Bannock (20), from Ballymun, north Dublin, was given a sentence of one year and two months for endangerment and criminal damage.

“I see the funny side in everything, I just laugh at everything,” he says.

He led gardaí on a high-speed pursuit in the middle of the day, broke a red light and narrowly missed hitting an elderly woman during the chase in December 2019 when he was aged 17.

Brannock didn’t have a licence at the time and sped off when gardaí recognised him.

He had 32 previous convictions, including drug and road traffic offences.

He was since found with a contraband phone in jail, but is due for release this month.