GERRY ‘The Monk’ Hutch has broken his silence by thanking his voters after he narrowly missed out on a Dail seat at the weekend. The Monk, 61, was a shock contender in

Failed election candidate Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch became a pivotal character in the story of organised crime in Ireland when he masterminded three of the biggest armed robberies in the history of the State.

The veteran criminal had opened up a seemingly unassailable lead over rival Marie Sherlock in Dublin Central by Sunday afternoon but there was to be a final twist in one of the stories of the general

Gerry Hutch has admitted that there's 'small concern' surrounding his personal safety after narrowly losing out on a Dáil seat in the General Election.

The veteran gangster was recently allowed to travel back to Ireland from Spain while on bail for money laundering charges

The alleged crime boss had been tipped to take one of four seats in Dublin Central, but lost to Labour’s Marie Sherlock

Newstalk’s political correspondent Sean Defoe is expecting Gerry Hutch to take the fourth seat adding, “The Monk will be a TD before all this is over”. Further down the tally, Labour’s Marie Sherlock is at 7.4%, Fianna Fáil’s Mary Fitzpatrick at 7.1% and Independent Malachy Steenson is at 4.8%.

The protracted process of sorting and counting votes in the general election has begun, with 174 TDs set to be elected across 43 constituencies over the coming days. We will have updates across the weekend as they happen.