The Prisoner
Dutchy Holland, currently serving an eight-year sentence in Wandsworth Prison, gives a remarkably revealing interview where he discusses all aspects of his life as a career criminal.
Jason O'Toole, 28 Aug 2008
Patrick Holland has a reputation as being Ireland’s top gangland hit man – albeit, as of now at least, a totally unsubstantiated one.
Dubbed “Dutchy” by the media, Holland has been accused of pulling the trigger in a number of the most high-profile murder cases that have occurred during the last two decades in this country. He was the prime suspect in the execution of the major underworld figure Paddy Shanahan, who was gunned down in 1994. It has also been alleged that Holland assassinated Ireland’s most notorious criminal kingpin, Martin Cahill, aka The General. He was also accused of being the hit man hired by Catherine Nevin, nicknamed The Black Widow, to execute her husband Tom.
However, it is the coldblooded murder of the crime reporter Veronica Guerin with which Holland is most closely associated in the public eye. It was widely speculated that the then 57-year-old was the pillion passenger on a stolen motorcycle, which pulled up beside Guerin’s red Opel Calibra at the traffic lights on the Naas Road. It was alleged by a Garda in court that Holland was the killer who jumped down off the bike and then, having used a handgun to smash the driver’s window of Guerin’s car, fired several close range shots at the Sunday Independent journalist, who died almost instantly.
Holland has always vigorously asserted his innocence of the slaying of Guerin.
It was a case of déjà vu. The lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano – dubbed ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ for representing numerous notorious clients, including Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic – had called me the previous month to enquire if Hot Press would like to interview his client John Gilligan. Once again, the colourful Italian lawyer phoned, with another intriguing proposition: did I want to meet another one of Ireland’s most infamous criminals, Paddy Eugene Holland?
Again, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse...
Two days later, I was sitting with Holland in London’s Wandsworth Prison. The 69-year-old pensioner is serving an eight-year sentence for apparently participating in an elaborate abduction – referred to as a ‘honey trap’ in the tabloids because a woman was used to lure the ‘mark’ into a sting. If successful, it was a ransom job that would have yielded the gang several million pounds.
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