The murder of Gary Hutch in Spain in September 2015 meant the Clash of the Clans boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel in February 2016 attracted a bigger audience than usual.
Among those present was a reporter from the Irish Independent, Robin Schiller. He was incognito but very much at work, checking out suspected criminal figures mixing beside the ordinary spectators – men, women and children.
By the time of that Friday afternoon public event, tensions were heightened in gangland circles but no gardaí were present at the hotel.
Robin said that he saw the man believed to be one of the leaders of what became known as the Kinahan Cartel, Daniel Kinahan.
"To the right-hand side, not on the stage, but near there, you had Daniel Kinahan there," he said.
Robin and a photographer, who was carrying his iPhone rather than usual camera, spent less than half an hour in the room where the weigh-in was taking place.
As the event came to a close, Robin and his colleague left. It was as they were walking to the front door of the hotel that they came face to face with terror.
Robin said: "In front of us at the hotel there was a silver Ford Transit van and emerging from that were three men dressed as Garda SWAT team mimicking Emergency Response Unit uniforms, and they were carrying assault rifles.
"One of them ran up in front of the other two into the hotel. One of them held his weapon to his side and the other had it resting against his shoulder and pointed the weapon at us. And both of them were shouting 'get the F 'outta here, get the F 'outta here'. Another one shouted ‘get the F down’."
Because of the fake Garda uniforms worn by three attackers, Robin first reasonably assumed it might be a garda operation.
"The initial thought was this may be some kind of garda raid, but fairly quickly it transpired it wasn't. Shots started going off, you could hear these loud cracks, people running out in pure panic. Men, women and children cowering behind the wall of the entrance steps, in pure terror.
"And after about a minute or two, the three men in the SWAT gear ran back out towards the van."
Daniel Kinahan escaped the attack. In the foyer of the hotel Kinahan gang member David Byrne lay dead.
Robin remembers the silence that fell over everyone in the initial seconds after the gunmen fled.
"And that kind of quietness and shock turned to quite clear anger after a short period of time. Gardaí began to arrive at the scene. And it was just an extremely hostile environment."
The murderous event will stay with Robin and all those who were at the Regency that day.
Barry Cummins and producer Sallyanne Godson will have a special hour-long Prime Time documentary: Murder at the Regency – tonight on RTÉ One at 9:35pm.
