In a major, exclusive interview in the latest issue of Hot Press (featuring KNEECAP on the cover), with the notorious criminal John Gilligan, we offer the most remarkable insight yet into the mindset and worldview of people who are active in Ireland’s criminal underworld.

In the interview, conducted by Jason O’Toole, Gilligan discusses the recent newspaper reports claiming he was at death’s door; says he regrets joking about domestic violence last year; talks about the bloody feud between Kinahans and Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch – and lots more besides. There’s plenty of controversy in the seven-page interview – but there is also very direct and unusually candid expression of how someone who has chosen the criminal life looks at the world and at fellow criminals.

On reports he has prostate cancer, Gilligan said: “I just couldn’t stop laughing when I read that. No, I don’t have prostate cancer. On my mother’s grave, I don’t have cancer. I will not die of cancer one thousand million percent because, from my head to toe, there’s no cancer in my body.”

The 72-year-old went on to claim that he has "no fears of dying."

"I’m after getting long enough out of life," he resumed. "I was shot six times. There’s still one bullet in me.”

He also addressed the rumours that he had money stashed away when charged with murder.

“There were a few million bearer bonds I had put off-side when I was in jail," he remarked. "I hadn’t got them in a bank account, but I had negotiable and non- negotiable bearer bonds.”

On his one-time criminal associate John Traynor, who Gilligan claims ordered the murder of Veronica Guerin, he said: "I’d told Brian Meehan to stay away from Traynor. I warned him: ‘Traynor is a psychopath.’”

Elsewhere in the interview, he reflected on violence, and how far he might go.

“I do believe I could kill," he said. "No, I haven’t killed, if you’re going to ask me. But, yes, I do believe I could kill. And that may be answering your question, 'Well then you must be a psychopath?' I think if I had to, I wouldn’t hesitate.”

On The Monk being acquitted of murder, Gilligan said he was delighted.

“Of course I was," he continued. "A million percent. I wish him well. I knew him many years ago. The Hutch family was always known as a staunch criminal family. They were no rats, they were against the police. And I always respected them for that. And when I learned later about the Kinahans, the same.

"The Byrne lads, the man that got shot, Lord have mercy on him, I didn’t know them – but I knew their father and mother, and they were good people. I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to them. If I had one wish, I wouldn’t waste it on any of them – but if I had ten wishes I’d wish that none of that trouble happened.”

Discussing the amount of inter-gang rivalry in Ireland, he said that the country, and "all the young lads in Ireland", have "gone mad".

"It’s a terrible shame because there’s no future in their lives with the things that they’re doing – they’re all going to end up in prison."

Also in this seven-page feature, Gilligan reveals that he could have a ‘lovechild', says he never plans to step foot again in Ireland, discusses his arrest in Spain, and talks about meeting John Traynor in hell.

The latest issue of Hot Press is in shops now, and available to order online below: