Shot over the course of a year the show was presented by journalist brain O’Donovan, known for his reporting on the Rachel O’Reilly murder trial Brian began his career in cork working on Red FM - he also presented Undercover Ireland: the drugs trade a TV3 documentary which exposed the truth behind Irelands growing dug problem.
Lawless Ireland was shown in 5 parts which the first part of the series concentrating on the trend of binge drinking & drunken disorderly behaviour.. I cant say I found that episode too entertaining nor did I find the episode on young offenders & the like but where the series really hot the nail on the head was on international & domestic organised crime. For me anyways its always been a well known fact that ATM crime has been active in Ireland for years & it was no surprise that show claimed Romanian gangs were behind it. Many international crime gangs have been active in Ireland for years now but its not hard to forget our own home-grown gangsters & gangs. Its no secret that guns have become easy to get in Ireland & all it takes is taking to the right people so its no surprise that Irish gangs are more well equipped than the police. High powered rifles/submachine guns & hand guns such as the efficient German made Glock are being used more & more in gangland assassinations & in many cases the guns are thrown in with drug deals as sweeteners. Kidnappings / security transport robbery / use of bombs & explosives in gangland Ireland / extortion / joyriding / drug & human trafficking are all mentioned at one point of another even the rise of football hooliganism gets a mention - footage of rovers vs. bohs etc is shown. My problem with the series is that almost everything mentioned was nothing new to me so it makes me wonder who the series was aimed at - surely to people were not to up to date on the current level of crime in Ireland?. From Ross Kemps series on gangs to our own Paul Williams & his exceptional series of books & TV series “dirty money” I have pretty much seen every series on both domestic & international crime & organised crime so I suppose I should have expected the series to offer nothing that new. So after watching all 5 episodes I have to admit the level of reporting was very good but the way it was all squeezed into only 5 episodes was a little annoying.. Just as they mentioned a good or interesting topic they quickly moved onto the next. For the first few episodes all the camera phone footage was annoying & at times unbearable but that’s soon forgotten when news footage & interviews come into play. I can see why the series was made & with the current economic climate it serves as a warning as to how things are going but they really good have split the episodes up a little better & expanded on some of the issues such as the Dublin & Limerick gangland feuds - they are mentioned in the last episode but its nothing fantastic & it doesn’t exactly do justice to the fact that there is at least one gangland killing a week now. Its hard to tell if they will make a follow-up series but maybe that’s a good thing, it looks like they covered most of the issues but stitched it all together a little sloppily. I enjoyed the series & it was refreshing to see something more realistic & straight to the point by TV3 but when it comes to reporting crime in Ireland I’ll stick to reading & watching Paul Williams.
Shot over the course of a year the show was presented by journalist brain O’Donovan, known for his reporting on the Rachel O’Reilly murder trial Brian began his career in cork working on Red FM - he also presented Undercover Ireland: the drugs trade a TV3 documentary which exposed the truth behind Irelands growing dug problem.
Lawless Ireland was shown in 5 parts which the first part of the series concentrating on the trend of binge drinking & drunken disorderly behaviour.. I cant say I found that episode too entertaining nor did I find the episode on young offenders & the like but where the series really hot the nail on the head was on international & domestic organised crime. For me anyways its always been a well known fact that ATM crime has been active in Ireland for years & it was no surprise that show claimed Romanian gangs were behind it. Many international crime gangs have been active in Ireland for years now but its not hard to forget our own home-grown gangsters & gangs. Its no secret that guns have become easy to get in Ireland & all it takes is taking to the right people so its no surprise that Irish gangs are more well equipped than the police. High powered rifles/submachine guns & hand guns such as the efficient German made Glock are being used more & more in gangland assassinations & in many cases the guns are thrown in with drug deals as sweeteners. Kidnappings / security transport robbery / use of bombs & explosives in gangland Ireland / extortion / joyriding / drug & human trafficking are all mentioned at one point of another even the rise of football hooliganism gets a mention - footage of rovers vs. bohs etc is shown. My problem with the series is that almost everything mentioned was nothing new to me so it makes me wonder who the series was aimed at - surely to people were not to up to date on the current level of crime in Ireland?. From Ross Kemps series on gangs to our own Paul Williams & his exceptional series of books & TV series “dirty money” I have pretty much seen every series on both domestic & international crime & organised crime so I suppose I should have expected the series to offer nothing that new. So after watching all 5 episodes I have to admit the level of reporting was very good but the way it was all squeezed into only 5 episodes was a little annoying.. Just as they mentioned a good or interesting topic they quickly moved onto the next. For the first few episodes all the camera phone footage was annoying & at times unbearable but that’s soon forgotten when news footage & interviews come into play. I can see why the series was made & with the current economic climate it serves as a warning as to how things are going but they really good have split the episodes up a little better & expanded on some of the issues such as the Dublin & Limerick gangland feuds - they are mentioned in the last episode but its nothing fantastic & it doesn’t exactly do justice to the fact that there is at least one gangland killing a week now. Its hard to tell if they will make a follow-up series but maybe that’s a good thing, it looks like they covered most of the issues but stitched it all together a little sloppily. I enjoyed the series & it was refreshing to see something more realistic & straight to the point by TV3 but when it comes to reporting crime in Ireland I’ll stick to reading & watching Paul Williams. 
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