The man caught with the rifles used in the Regency Hotel shooting today breaks his silence - and claims he agreed to pay €30,000 for the weapons.
In the first part of our bombshell interview, convicted IRA member Shane Rowan spoke exclusively to this paper about his direct involvement in transporting the AK-47s used in the killing of David Byrne - as well as his dealings with Jonathan Dowdall and Patsy Hutch.
Rowan, 44, from Donegal, spent five and a half years in prison after he says he was “caught red handed” transporting the three rifles from the Malahide industrial estate in north Dublin, where he had earlier met with Patsy Hutch - on March 9, 2016.
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“I was caught red handed. So why even bother? All you’re doing is putting yourself under pressure and through a court case. Just get it done, get your time done and get out. I don’t regret it,” Rowan told us. “When I’m sitting on my deathbed at least I can say I done something."
Gardai apprehended Rowan in Slane, Co Meath, just over a month on from the Regency and weeks after the IRA man had met Dowdall and Gerry Hutch at his home in Co Donegal to allegedly arrange peace talks.
Garda ballistic experts later determined that the rifles discovered in the boot of Rowan's car were the same ones used by the tactical team that shot and killed Kinahan cartel associate David Byrne in the foyer of the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016.
Speaking today for the first time Shane Rowan claims he agreed to pay the Hutch gang €10,000 per rifle, planning to then “put them to bed” by burying them - until they might one day be used.
However, he says when the job went "tits up" the money was never paid.
“10 grand each. That was the going price. Somebody offers you weapons for sale, you either say yes or say no. Now normally if I was 100 percent certain that they were the same weapons [used in the Regency] I wouldn’t have been down in Dublin getting them.
"They would have been dropped into the north,” he said. “But if they had told us out straight that it was the same weapons then I would still have taken them. A weapon is a weapon, let’s be real here.”
“We’re in that game. I’m not going to question every weapon I get. It’s just not done. No armed group would ever question the background of something.
Rowan, who served concurrent sentences for possession of the firearms and IRA membership, claims that at the time he didn’t think the Hutch gang would be stupid enough to keep the guns after the Regency hit.
“Well, let me tell you, there were suspicions, but you wouldn’t think anybody would be stupid enough. I was expecting them to be in the Liffey or the Irish sea or something."
Rowan also claimed to us that later during his imprisonment in Portlaoise prison, Jonathan Dowdall insisted to him that the weapons were not the ones used in the Regency.
“I asked him were they the same guns used in the Regency and he goes no, no, no. They wouldn’t be stupid enough,” he claimed.
Unbeknownst to Rowan at the time, gardai from the National Surveillance Unit (NSU) tracked his every movement from his home in Co Donegal all the way down to the Clarehall Shopping Centre in North Dublin - where he met with Patsy Hutch on March 9.
Rowan was captured on CCTV going into the shopping centre, where he tells us he was killing time before his planned meeting with Patsy - who has not been charged with any offence in connection with this.
As the Special Criminal Court trial of Gerry Hutch already heard, NSU officers claimed they observed Rowan then getting into a Toyota Yaris with Patsy - and the two went for tea and pastries, sitting in the car for a period of time.
While this was going on other individuals were observed going to the boot of Rowan’s Vauxhall Insignia - placing the three AK-47 rifles into the boot.
Speaking for the first time about the sequence of events - Rowan told us that he barely spoke to Patsy Hutch in that car - and in fact he was shocked to even be meeting with him.
“I got into the car. There was no plan. We just went for a drive, and to get a cup of tea. We didn’t speak really. I can remember him asking me if I took sugar in my tea.”
Patsy Hutch was then allegedly observed on CCTV going into an Applegreen store where he purchased two drinks and pastries - something several NSU officers have also testified before the Special Criminal Court about.
Rowan, who admitted he had done similar jobs like this before, says he sat with Patsy for some time while the guns were being transferred into his Insignia by other parties.
“It normally takes 20 minutes. Except this time it took like two and a half hours or something. Then you just go back, it’s good luck and away you go. You don’t speak to these people. You don’t try to give them anything about you. You’re just there to do a transaction and away you go.”
Rowan says the only other interaction he had with Patsy was at the traffic lights when he pulled down his car window and expressed concern that they might be being watched by gardai.
“When I pulled out I spotted two people. I looked across at Patsy Hutch and I said ‘are they your guys? And he said no. I said, "I think that might be cops.”
Rowan then drove off the Malahide road and onto the M50 - heading back to the north. But he says he had a feeling he was being followed - and he began to fear that the game was up.
“I was battering the steering wheel with my hands and saying “f*ck, f*ck I’ve been caught,” he said. “I thought, 'What will I do now?' So I cut a left and I thought I will dump those things out of the f*cking boot and if they catch me, they catch me. At least them things won’t be in it.”
Rowan says he tried to get away but a car was in his way - and at this point he knew he was about to get arrested.
“I started battering the steering wheel again and I looked in my wing mirror and I seen the three jeeps coming and I pulled in. I f*cking pulled in because it wasn’t my car and I didn't want it destroyed. I had my hands up and they pulled me out. I went to court, went to jail and got out. That was the f*cking story there.”
Asked why he would ever get involved, Rowan says he viewed it as another job - and believed the weapons would benefit what he called his “unit.” He also said he had no association with the Hutch or Kinahan gangs and insisted the "feud has nothing to do with me."
“You’re kind of getting your unit a little bit of firepower. That’s basically it. You can have small weaponry but it’s not really good for anything. It’s heavy artillery. You can never have too many.”
Asked in what event would such artillery be used Rowan said: “In the event you want to take someone out. It’s a decent enough oul weapon. You know what I mean? You get a good distance. You can have a good pop from far enough away.
“It will do what you want it to do. A handgun is ok, but you’ve got to get up close. You never get up close to anybody in the security forces to be honest with you.
“You just never know and you know if you get your opportunity, why not have a wee whack like? I probably shouldn’t have said that but I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you man. I’m probably going to get into lots of problems over this but anyway."
Put to him that none of what he was saying would paint him in a flattering light Rowan said: “I know it sounds so bad but I’m not going to sugar coat it. I know it’s harsh.
“It’s not America where you’re going to have it on you at all times. You’re going to put it to bed until you have a chance to use it. Ah sure look you’d want to see the amount of digging they did after I got lifted,” he added.
Rowan, who admitted he was a member of the IRA claims his actions were to benefit a cause he believed in - even suggesting the weapons might even have been used to commemorate the centenary in 2016.
“I was running my own show. A crowd of young fellas having a go like. Coming up to 2016 and your grandad, your grannies and their great-granddads might have been involved back in the day.
“You’d have grown up hearing about it, listening about it and you think to yourself you know what 100 years later maybe fire off a couple of shots, do something to commemorate them more or less. That’s what I was at.”
He added that he felt his actions meant something to the republican cause.
“When I’m sitting on my deathbed at least I can say I done something. Rightly or wrongly as you say for your country. At least I can say what my granddad and granny's relatives would have done back in the day, well at least I can say one of us stood up a generation later and was trying to do something.”
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