Eddie Hutch Jnr, nephew of ‘The Monk’, died without knowing he was to become a grandfather, funeral hears

Eddie (47) was found unresponsive at his home on Portland Place in Dublin’s north inner city on Sunday, May 19.

His death is not being investigated as suspicious.

He was the son of Eddie Hutch snr, who was shot dead in a reprisal just three days after the Regency Hotel shooting in February 2016 in which Kinahan kingpin David Byrne was murdered.

The Hutch/Kinahan gangland feud claimed a total of 18 lives, including Eddie jnr’s cousins, Gary and Gareth.

At the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Sean McDermott Street, family, neighbours and friends gathered to pay their respects to Hutch today as gardaí maintained a discreet presence.

In his homily, Fr Michael Casey said life can be a challenge and a quest that can be affected by different influences, some of which are external, and some are internal and depend on choices we make ourselves.

“We all like to hear success stories of people doing well, but even those that are successful and live lives of celebrity, they too pay a price for it. Everything they do is scrutinised and watched and judged, and that can happen too if for different reasons you’re in the limelight,” he said.

“Sometimes we’re blamed for the sins of our ancestors, and sometimes we’re all painted with the one brush, which is so unfair because we are all unique, and we are all on our own unique journey.”

“Yes, we all have to be accountable. Wrongdoing has to be called out and justice has to be done,” he added, saying that behind what is public there is also a private part of life only known by those close to us.

He said every life is a gift, and gifts come in different packages, and some are very fragile and need to be held gently.

Fr Casey referred to one condolence message for Hutch that he read online signed by a ‘Dublin mam’. “I don’t know you Edward only your surname. What I do know it has been a name plagued with sadness and grief. May God comfort your already broken-hearted family,” it read.

A cousin of Hutch spoke at the end of the funeral and told stories of his life and said he was a man who didn’t like a fuss to be made of him.

She told one story of how Edward and friends once went to Mosney holiday camp with friends, but slipped back to the chalet early where he “cooked up a storm of a big pot of stew which was devoured by his friends when they arrived back at 3am.”

“When Edward was asked where he learned his cooking skills he said ‘only in the best place – The ‘Joy’ ,” she said.

Eddie Hutch is pre-deceased by his father Eddie snr and his mother Jane ‘Jenny’ who died from a heart attack in January 2023 at the age of 66 at the same house in Portland Place where her son Eddie died.

He was one of five siblings, and lost his brother Christopher to a drug overdose in 2003. His two younger brothers, Ross and Alan, are currently in jail at Dublin’s Wheatfield Prison, and mourners were told today that they were watching the funeral online.

Eddie jnr’s fifth brother, Gavin, was present at his funeral today, along with Patrick Hutch jnr who was acquitted of the Regency Hotel murder in 2019, and his father Patsy Hutch and other family members.

There was no visible presence of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch.

Eddie jnr’s only daughter, Megan, was present, and as the funeral mass began mourners were told that Eddie had not yet been told that he was due to become a grandfather.

Along with a set of Eddie’s car keys, a scan of his unborn grandchild was brought to the altar to represent symbols of his life.