An insider’s view of the secret world of the Irish witness protection programme

Conventional wisdom has it that the first person to enter witness protection in Ireland was Charles Bowden, a career criminal who played a role in the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin.

Bowden became a protected witness in 1997 after agreeing to turn State’s evidence against his co-conspirators in the murder.

This assertion has been repeated often in recent months as part of coverage of former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall and his probable admission to the programme in return for giving evidence in the murder trial of Gerry Hutch.

But for Brendan McGoldrick, who lives in south Dublin and who works in finance, it’s a distortion of history. The 65-year-old is firmly of the view that he, and not Bowden, was the first person to enter witness protection in Ireland, and that he did so 14 years before Guerin’s murder.

I am that deeply suspect Irish creature, a mother of an only child. It was by choice

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“It totally pisses me off when I hear it was set up after the Guerin murder,” said McGoldrick. “Ireland’s first Witness Protection Programme took place between 1983 and 1986 and I was the sole participant.”

Unlike the vast majority of cases involving witness protection, McGoldrick’s story relates to a civil case rather than a criminal prosecution. But the threat he faced was very real and it came from one of the most feared criminals in the State.

This resulted in McGoldrick being placed under armed guard by a team of detectives 24 hours a day, seven days a week for almost three years. “The protection was very heavy. It was three shifts of eight hours each then four shifts of six hours. They weren’t taking any chances,” he recalled.

McGoldrick’s story starts in 1982 when he was a financial controller and director of Kelly’s Carpetdrome, a carpet store on the North Circular Road. The company’s other directors were Matt and Eamon Kelly, brothers of Des Kelly, of Des Kelly Carpets fame.

Kelly’s Carpetdrome was in deep trouble at the time. Its books were incoherent and it owed tens of thousands in VAT. In 1981, with Revenue breathing down the Kellys’ necks, the company was put into liquidation.

But that was only the beginning of their problems. Shortly afterwards, the liquidator asked the High Court to make Matt and Eamon Kelly personally responsible for the company’s debts, citing what he alleged was a “carefully planned scheme to defraud the State”.

The case was heard in the Four Courts with McGoldrick subpoenaed by the liquidator to give evidence. Before this could happen, Matt Kelly and his unofficial legal adviser Michael Deighan approached their employee and told him to commit perjury to assist their case, the court was told later. McGoldrick refused.

McGoldrick was even asked to play with the Garda rugby team to facilitate a few members of his protection detail who were also on the squad.

A few days later, McGoldrick received an instruction to meet Kelly and Deighan at a premises on Prussia Street to discuss the case. Fearing for his safety, McGoldrick instead went to Mountjoy Garda station where he made a lengthy statement alleging widespread fraud and criminality within the company.

McGoldrick had essentially switched sides and was intent on doing everything he could to assist the liquidator in its case against Matt and Eamon Kelly. The next day Matt Kelly and Deighan were jailed for criminal contempt for interfering with a witness (the conviction was later quashed by the Supreme Court, which ruled the judge had acted outside his powers).

[ Witness protection: A life of exile, anxiety and poverty ]

They subsequently lost their High Court case too, partly because of McGoldrick’s evidence. The allegations of criminality that came to light during the hearing, including that the Carpetdrome premises has been purposely burnt down as part of a fraud, also led gardaí to open a criminal investigation.

This left gardaí with serious concern for McGoldrick’s wellbeing. Not only had he betrayed his employers, he would no doubt be a key state witness if the Kellys were to face a criminal trial.

Gardaí were most concerned about Eamon Kelly who by then was deeply enmeshed in Dublin’s criminal underworld, where he was regarded as a fixer and interface between criminal gangs. The High Court case had heard allegations Kelly was in the Official IRA and had pushed a shotgun down someone’s throat while investigating the theft of carpets from the shop.

Another man, a Carpetdrome employee, gave evidence of being shot in the legs but did not identify his attacker.

Under the direction of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), McGoldrick was put under round-the-clock garda protection from the moment he turned against the Kellys. This protection was to remain in place until the DPP decided if criminal charges should be brought against them.

He still recalls the weapons they carried: an Uzi submachine gun with six magazines and a “very powerful” .38 Magnum handgun

Witness protection was a new departure for the gardaí. The idea of granting witnesses round-the-clock protection, and possibly a new identity, originated two decades previously in the United States as a way of prosecuting cases against the Mafia.

The Garda Special Task Force, a subunit of the Special Detective Unit, were considered the best fit for the job as it already provided protection to politicians and dignitaries and was considered to be the elite unit of the force.

The arrangements around McGoldrick were more ad hoc than the system that was formalised following the Guerin murder in 1997. But they were no less comprehensive.

In the early stages, gardaí sourced a bulletproof car, the only one in the State, to transport their protectee and officers were placed outside the young man’s house at all times. “My mother wasn’t too happy about that but that was the way it had to be,” McGoldrick said.

After leaving his employment with the Kellys, McGoldrick worked in another interiors store where a detective was stationed at all times posing as a customer. He still recalls the weapons they carried: an Uzi submachine gun with six magazines and a “very powerful” .38 Magnum handgun.

Aged in his mid-20s at the time, McGoldrick would visit bars and nightclubs accompanied at all times by his protection detail. The gardaí were of a similar age so they got along well. They resented doing protection duty, feeling it was a distraction from their main role of combating paramilitaries, but they made the best of it, McGoldrick said.

The men played golf together in the Garda Golf Club and McGoldrick was even asked to play with the Garda rugby team to facilitate a few members of his protection detail who were also on the squad.

McGoldrick said his protection occasionally aroused some curiosity from others. While on a golfing holiday in Kerry, a local journalist asked one of the gardaí what all the fuss was about. He was informed a cousin of Queen Elizabeth was over visiting.

It wasn’t all bars and rounds of golf however. On one occasion, McGoldrick was informed by gardaí they had detected rumblings of an active plot to assassinate him. On another, gardaí spotted a motorcyclist weaving through traffic by McGoldrick’s car whom they believed was conducting a dry run for a murder attempt.

The protection continued until February 1986 when McGoldrick received a call informing him the DPP had decided not to bring criminal charges against the Kellys. The Garda protection would be wound down before being withdrawn completely by the end of March, he was told.

Two years and nine months after becoming the first person in witness protection, McGoldrick became the first person to leave it. “The news came as a shock to me.”

In subsequent years Eamon Kelly became involved in even more serious crime, culminating in his imprisonment in 1993 for 14 years for importing cocaine from Miami. He survived an assassination attempt on his release before being shot dead in 2012. One of Kelly’s killers was eventually convicted of his murder in 2021 following an investigation by the Special Detective Unit.

[ Spotter for ‘murder gang’ who gunned down Eamon Kelly gets life in prison ]

Matt Kelly, who has convictions for larceny and burglary, went on to accumulate a large property holding before declaring bankruptcy in the 1990s. In 2002 he agreed to pay the Criminal Assets Bureau €3.5 million as part of a settlement.

McGoldrick’s life has been somewhat less dramatic since 1986. He remains adamant he made history by being the first person in witness protection. Even though the programme wasn’t on a formal footing, he had been informed by the Garda and the High Court judge dealing with the case that he was in the witness protection programme, he said.

Regarding his own history since the Kellys Carpets case, McGoldrick said he received no further trouble. He believes this may be down to his garda protectors quietly warning Eamon Kelly of the consequences of going near him again.