Fighting Irish (gang)


 * "Fighting Irish" redirects here. For the athletic teams of the Catholic University of Notre Dame in Indiana, see Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The Fighting Irish are a predominantly ethnic Irish organised crime group (OCG) operating in and around the port city of Vancouver, the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC), and the third-most populous in Canada. The Fighting Irish are currently (as of summer 2020) considered the most powerful OCG in Western Canada, and are responsible for some of the most violent and sophisticated organised criminal activity in the Metro Vancouver/Lower Mainland area.

In addition to the OCG's estimated 570 career criminals, the gang also employs a network of civilian informants, as well as corrupt police officers within the Lower Mainland Constabulary (LMC), as well as to a lesser extent within the British Columbia Provincial Police and also the Royal Esquimalt Constabulary in the neighbouring province of Vancouver Island. For example, the LMC's highly covert Operation Olive Branch, which ran from 2010 to 2017 and involved placing deep cover officers within the higher ranks of the Fighting Irish (some of whom were exposed as undercover officers and killed by the gang), eventually proved Assistant Chief Constable Declan O'Connor was working for the gang. O'Connor was dismissed, tried, and prosecuted on numerous charges, including four charges of conspiracy to murder, and is currently serving a life sentence at the Millhaven Institution, a federal maximum security prison in Lennox and Addington County, Ontario. The same operation also uncovered five other senior officers in the LMC working for the Fighting Irish gang, all of whom are now serving a minimum of ten years in federal prison.

Despite the successes of Operation Olive Branch, the Fighting Irish are still considered to be the most powerful and predominant organised crime group in Western Canada, due at least partially to the organisation's sophisticated method of secure communications, integrity of its members, and advanced operational planning. The gang known to use multiple (50+) businesses in the Lower Mainland to launder money and as fronts for its operations. The current leader of the Fighting Irish is thought to be Duncan "Ducky" Kelly.