There is one overwhelming trait that defines gangland regardless of geographic borders or cultural difference: my ally and fellow gang member today will just as easily become my sworn enemy tomorrow.

Loyalty is a temporary virtue in a world characterised by greed and populated by ruthless psychopaths who are largely devoid of empathy or emotion and for whom killing is a corporate strategy.

To quote the immortal words of the Michael Corleone in ‘The Godfather’: “It’s not personal, it’s strictly business.”

The three-year blood feud between the Hutch and Kinahan gangs conforms to this paradigm in every respect.

Once they were one indistinguishable organisation headed by two titans of the underworld, Christy Kinahan, the Dapper Don and his friend Gerry Hutch, the Monk.

A few years ago it would have been unthinkable these two men would become sworn enemies and the authors of what would, by European standards, grow into an unprecedented gang war.

Ultimately it was the sins of the younger, volatile generation which brought about the unprecedented conflagration.

The spark which ignited the explosion was a bitter falling out between the Monk’s nephew Gary, Patrick Hutch’s brother, and Daniel Kinahan.

Hutch was based in Marbella, a key player in the cartel Christy Kinahan had built into one of the biggest organised crime groups in Europe, with tentacles across the globe.

Both sides have spun their own version of the truth of what happened next: Kinahan claimed Hutch was an informant while Hutch counter claimed Kinahan had double crossed him and then threatened to expose Kinahan’s betrayal and murder of former partners in crime.

What is not in dispute is that Gary Hutch went to Kinahan’s home in 2015 with the intention of shooting him but instead shot and injured an innocent man.

That led to negotiations between the Monk and the Kinahans with a view to saving Gary’s life.

It has been reported the Monk agreed with Daniel Kinahan that in return for his nephew being allowed to live he would organise the payment of €200,000 in compensation for the shooting.

But in September 2015 Kinahan reneged on the agreement and had Gary Hutch executed.

The final straw then came on New Year’s Eve when two Dublin hit men walked into a pub in Puerto del Carmen in Tenerife with the intention of assassinating the Monk.

But the wily underworld veteran had sensed trouble and evaded his would-be killers by fading into the background and slipping away.

But Hutch knew who they were and, more importantly, who had sent them. Coincidentally one of the hit men is currently serving life for a subsequent feud-related murder.

Gardaí believe it was the Monk who masterminded the Irish gangland equivalent of the St Valentine’s Day massacre when his mob attempted to wipe out the leadership of the Kinahan organisation at a boxing weight-in at the Regency Hotel two years ago.

It had been intended as a gangland ‘spectacular’ by executing Daniel Kinahan and his top associates but they managed to escape. David Byrne was not so lucky.

The Regency attack blasted its way into the history books of organised crime in Ireland as a spectacular miscalculation for which the mastermind has paid dearly: his brother, two more nephews and his two best friends are amongst the appalling death toll.

The score sheet of the carnage illustrates how this has been a lop-sided battle with one side making determined efforts to wipe out the other side. So far it reads: Kinahan 16 Hutch 2.

And the worrying thing is this savage game is no where near the full-time whistle.

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