Real IRA thug Nathan Kinsella’s prison ‘beef’ with violent Kinahan hitman

Kinsella, who has been jailed for one year for failing to pay taxes on hundreds of thousands of euros he claims were a ‘gift’ from a millionaire friend, has been moved to the Midlands facility after prison bosses decided he couldn’t be held in the same jail as gunman Eamon Cumberton.

Cumberton is serving a life sentence for shooting dead Michael Barr, a Republican killed during the Kinahan-Hutch feud, and was being held on the C1 wing where Kinsella was placed after he handed himself up to jailers earlier this month.

However, within hours of Kinsella’s arrival, Cumberton made it clear that he had ‘beef’ with the Real IRA man, who he has accused of attacking his mother’s north inner city home on the night Barr was killed at the Sunset House bar.

Barr had previously pleaded guilty to handling stolen electrical equipment at the Jim Mansfield- owned Finnstown House Hotel in 2014 and was due to be sentenced the day after his killing.

Kinsella was one of several Real IRA men involved with Jim Mansfield Jnr’s security at that time.

Prison bosses assessed the situation and moved Cumberton to a separate block as they made plans overnight to move Kinsella out of the prison altogether. The following day he was transferred to the Midlands.

Kinsella was at the heart of events on Mansfield properties several years ago and which were detailed during Jim Mansfield Jnr’s trial for kidnap.

A court heard that Kinsella, at one point, used Mansfield’s family home, Tasaggart House, as an ‘office’ and along with his slain Real IRA colleague Alan Ryan was being paid thousands to protect the shamed millionaire from gangs and criminals who claimed that he owed them money.

The complex relationship between a number of dissident groupings who converged on the Mansfield properties was detailed in the Special Criminal Court. Mansfield Jnr was found not guilty of kidnap but guilty of impeding the course of an investigation and spent 18 months in prison.

Mansfield Jnr, the court heard, had employed members of an INLA group to protect him and his property and later hired Ryan and his sidekick, Kinsella. But he then brought in a third terror grouping, including ‘Border Fox’, Dessie O’Hare and Declan ‘Whacker’ Duffy to clear out the old order and take over the role.

That hostile takeover led to the kidnap of his father’s former security chief Martin Byrne, who went on Witness Protection to give evidence about his ordeal.

Some years later, Cumberton was hired by the Kinahan Cartel to murder Michael Barr, who it decided had had a role in the Regency attack. He became the sixth victim of the feud, but gunman Cumberton later claimed that Kinsella had attacked his mother’s home.

Those grievances came back to haunt prison chiefs in recent weeks when Kinsella was returned to prison for another sentence.

He handed himself over to staff at Portlaoise Prison on July 3, to serve a one year sentence. However, by the following morning he was moved to the Midlands after Cumberton left prison bosses under no illusion about his issues with him.

Kinsella has been living a charmed existence since his last prison sentence for membership of an illegal organisation.

He has been residing in a million euro property in Blackrock with his partner Jennifer Dunne.

At a hearing earlier this year, Dominic McGinn SC for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said his guilty pleas related to failures to pay Capital Acquisitions Tax for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Mr McGinn said that during the period under investigation a total of €230,000 had been lodged into three accounts, two controlled by Kinsella’s partner and one by Kinsella himself. Kinsella admitted to gardaí he had no taxable income for that period and had been on unemployment payments.

Kinsella told gardaí in voluntary interviews that he had lived with a friend, a multi-millionaire, who would loan or gift money to him.

Mr Justice MacGrath noted that Kinsella told gardaí he lived with this man from 2016 to 2019, that he did not pay rent and when he needed money, he would ask for it and his friend would provide it.

Jailing him at the Special Criminal Court, Mr Justice Michael MacGrath said the court had “concerns” about the explanations Kinsella gave of receiving money.

The court, on receipt of medical records, agreed to defer the sentence to allow Kinsella’s doctors to liaise with prison medical staff to ensure that he has access to medication while in prison.