CONVICTED CRIMINAL JOHN Gilligan is reported to have left Ireland by ferry late last night, immediately after being discharged from hospital.
The notorious gangland figure is believed to have been escorted by armed gardaí to the ferry terminal at Dublin Port at around midnight.
In a photograph on the Irish Independent front page, Gilligan is pictured in a wheelchair being brought out of James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown, where he was being treated.
In the picture, he is wearing black trousers, a black coat and a black flat cap, and he is holding a plastic bag from Dunnes Stores.
Gilligan was shot four times just over a fortnight ago as he attended a family christening in Clondalkin.
His departure from the country comes in the wake of the shooting dead of Stephen ‘Dougie’ Moran, a close associate of Gilligan’s who was shot dead in Lucan on Saturday night.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s News at One, journalist Paul Williams said Gilligan’s departure was an “ignominious retreat from public life”.
Gilligan was acquitted of the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, but was sentenced to 28 years in prison for drug trafficking in 2001.
He was released from Portlaoise Prison last October. An attempt was made on his life just weeks later, when a gunman entered a pub close to where Gilligan was drinking. Gilligan later dismissed the attempt as a “Halloween prank”.
Gardaí could not immediately confirm that Gilligan was given an armed escort to the ferry port.
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