DUBLIN GANGLAND FIGURE Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch is raffling off his social media accounts which were critical campaign tools in his surprise general election candidacy last year.

Hutch, 61, who ran unsuccessfully in the Dublin Central constituency last November, is seeking to hand over his Instagram and TikTok profiles to a follower of his – possibly signaling the end of his most-recent, short-lived return to the public eye.

The elusive figure says he hopes that the pages, with a combined following of nearly 55,000, can help to boost a local entrepreneur. 

His online post, directing the public to follow his profiles on Instagram and TikTok and to tag three friends in the post to enter the raffle, says he wants to give the account to someone to ‘get their small business off the ground’.

Hutch’s 2024 Dáil bid caused a stir over the appropriateness and merit of his candidacy due to his historic ties to gangland crime in Dublin. He narrowly missed out on the final seat in the constituency to Labour’s Marie Sherlock.

First receiving the nickname ‘The Monk’ in Magill Magazine in the early 1990s for leading a ‘disciplined’ lifestyle in an otherwise chaotic environment, Hutch in later years was a more high-profile figure.

A two-part documentary that concluded on RTÉ television this week told Hutch’s life story up to his 2024 campaign, detailing many newspaper articles and television segments which he featured.

Following the high-profile 2023 verdict of a Special Criminal Court trial, when Hutch was acquitted for the 2016 murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel, the patriarch left Ireland for Spain, where he had been residing for a number of years.

His return to Ireland in November last year, which came after it was revealed he was facing money laundering charges in Spain, was widely reported on after his solicitors told a Spanish court that he intended to run as a candidate in the general election.

European law prohibits the continuation of remand or the revocation of bail in circumstances where someone accused of a crime intends to submit themselves as a candidate for an election.

He told The Sunday World journalist Nicola Tallant during a podcast that he had been encouraged to stand for election by members of his local community. Many outlets closely followed Hutch’s campaign, which was met with some criticism from then-Taoiseach Simon Harris.

Most notably, however, Hutch publicly campaigned on social media. Accounts belonging to him and his election team were used to deem the candidate as ‘the people’s choice’ and promoted the idea of ‘change’ in the community’s representation.

He secured nearly 3,100 first-preference votes after the first count in Dublin Central last November, losing out in the 11th count by 780 votes. He told reporters at the Dublin count centre at the RDS that he would not rule out a second political run.

Media reports following his failed Dáil bid suggested Hutch had returned to Lanzarote, in Spain, where court proceedings into his money laundering case are still ongoing.

Posts on his Instagram and TikTok pages have since been removed. A single post remains on his Instagram profile, detailing the entry requirements for his account giveaway next month.