Boxer Peter McDonagh has revealed that he spoke to David Byrne mere minutes before he was shot dead in the Regency Hotel.
The Irish champion boxer (45), who was pals with mob boss Daniel Kinahan, was at the boxing weigh-in event in the North Dublin hotel when hitmen came inside and opened fire.
And speaking exclusively to this paper, Peter revealed how he ran for his life, “chucking” himself into a “broom cupboard” after gunmen dressed as gardai and armed with AK47 rifles came in looking for his then boxing manager - Kinahan.
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McDonagh, who has just released a tell-all autobiography ‘Irish Blood and Grit: The True Story of Peter McDonagh’ still defends his friendship with Kinahan, who trained him for years - despite sanctions imposed upon him by the US and UAE governments last year.
Back in February 2016 he was in Kinahan’s company at the now infamous ‘Clash of the Clans’ boxing weigh-in event when a Hutch hit-team entered looking for him, and ultimately shot dead associate David Byrne.
And speaking in detail about what he witnessed, Peter told us how one of the hitmen- a man dressed as a woman wearing a blonde wig, fired a gunshot to the ceiling, sparking mass panic in the Regency Hotel ballroom.
“When he fired it, obviously people hit the floor. I thought f*ck that, I’m out of here.
“I was out the door and then I ran right to the side of the hotel, I found a broom cupboard and I chucked myself in it.”
Peter says he doesn’t know where his pal Kinahan was at the time - as he primarily feared for his own life at that moment.
“I don’t know where he was. I wasn’t worried about where anybody was.”
“So it was surreal really. It was a surreal experience.”
Minutes earlier Peter said he had been speaking with his pal David Byrne - who was blasted by two of the hitmen and left dead at the reception area of the hotel.
“I was talking to David Byrne just before it and we were having a laugh about when I won the title against Dean Byrne a few months before.
“It was probably about five minutes before they (the hit team) walked into the room.”
Peter says when he finally emerged from the cleaning closet he discovered David Byrne’s body lying on the floor as a panicked crowd continued to flee the hotel.
“Then to walk out and see him on the floor was horrible.
“I’ve never seen a crime scene like it where there’s someone lying on the floor, blood pumping out of him and they didn’t even cover the body.”
Speaking about his friendship with Byrne, who was a boxing fan, Peter added: “Yeah he was a friend. He supported me in my boxing. Did I have many encounters with him? No, not really. He was a boxing fan.”
Peter says he was speaking to Kinahan before the shooting broke out also - but he says the pair never even discussed what happened at the Regency afterwards.
“He was my manager, wasn’t he, so we were talking.
“But no, we never talked about it. I’ve never sat there and spoken about that with him.
“Anything I spoke to him about was my boxing,” he claimed.
Asked if he had ever met Gerry Hutch before, Peter says he may have in the early days of his career, adding:
“He’s an intelligent man, a very intelligent man. I think I might have met him at Brian Peters shows years ago.
“That life to me that’s their life, that’s how them people want to live.
I’ve never chosen to live like that.
“I say in my book when things happened in my life, I definitely could have gone down that route at the time when I lost my sister.”
Incredibly Peter claims it was Kinahan - who is now considered to be the leader of an international criminal cartel, who warned him against turning to a life of crime.
“When I went out to Marbella the only person who gave me sound advice was Daniel.
“He said,” Listen, you don’t want to end up in trouble.”
The former professional three time Irish champion spoke to us in the wake of the not guilty verdict of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch for the murder of Byrne - and said he believes it will make it impossible to prosecute his former manager either.
He said: “We all know about the Hutch and Kinahan (feud).
“So if they are not pulling one man down for something, how are they going to pull down the other?”
Peter claims he hasn’t spoken to Kinahan now in a number of years, but he says he has doubts about him being a mob boss, and says in light of the Hutch verdict in particular, he questions if his old pal would ever get caught.
“What I will say is it makes you wonder when people are walking away like the situation that happened on Monday (with Hutch).
“I don’t know what evidence they got on Daniel. I know there’s been massive sanctions.
“I can tell you first hand that I’ve been through it and I was considered guilty until proven innocent.
“I’m very open about it in the book. I say exactly what happened to me and how I felt.
“When you talk about sanctions and this and that, I don’t know what his outer life is.
“Listen tell you what if he was doing what they say he was doing, he was in the gym 12 hours a day. I don’t know how he found the time,” he claimed.
Following the Regency shooting McDonagh says he actually stayed in the hotel the following night - and later thanked his sister for looking over him during the horrific, life-threatening experience.
“I stayed there that night. I stayed in the Regency.
“Then I went back to see my sister. I went back the next day to Connemara to her grave and I told her she was looking over me.
“Anybody could have gotten shot that day.”
Peter claims he doesn’t know why his pal Kinahan would have been targeted -
and says if he was supposed to be surrounded by fellow cronies, why did they not pull out guns themselves when the attack occurred.
“If they are the dangerous people they are, why didn’t any of them have a gun in the place?
“If shots started getting fired it’s a natural instinct you would pull out a gun,” he said.
You can buy a copy of Peter’s book now on Amazon.
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