A TWO-PART DOCUMENTARY series examining the life and crimes of gangland figure and general election candidate Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch is to air its first episode on RTÉ on Monday.

The documentary series, titled Gerry Hutch: AKA The Monk, was almost a year in the making. It began initial filming last summer.

“Little did we know it at the time,” director John Downes wrote in an article for RTÉ, “but within a few months the notorious gangland figure would become one of the stories of the general election.”

The series promises to tell the story of Hutch’s beginnings in North Dublin’s inner city, to his descent into criminality and charges he faced, up until his shock run for the Dáil.

In April 2023, Hutch was found not guilty in the Special Criminal Court trial of the murder of David Byrne in the Regency Hotel in Dublin in 2016.

Now out on bail from Spain, which was set at €100,000, Hutch is under  investigation for alleged money laundering. He narrowly missed out on a seat in the Dáil. Labour’s Marie Sherlock pipped him to the post, prompting headlines such as ‘Sherlock catches the Monk’.

The documentary is to delve into Hutch’s prominence in Dublin’s world of crime and how his and his allies’ feud with the Kinahan clan played out.

Director John Downes of the RTÉ Documentary Unit writes that the “sheer volume” of archive material available on Hutch was a key feature of early research for the series.

Hutch was involved with street gang “the Bugsies” in his youth, becoming the de facto leader. He allegedly became involved with more serious crime later in his life.

Hutch now splits his time between Dublin and Spain.

Gerry Hutch: AKA The Monk begins this coming Monday, February 10th at 9.35pm on RTÉ One.