Sylvester Garrigan

Sylvester Garrigan is a fictional character in the RTÉ soap opera "Fair City", portrayed by Frank O'Sullivan. He is the notorious crime boss in Carrigstown and has an estranged daughter.

Fictional character biography

When Garrigan first arrived in Carrigstown in 2005, he took over the deceased Billy Meehan's criminal position and started a friendship with Carol Meehan. Anthony Farrell, Carol's boyfriend and Garrigan's solicitor, suspected that they were infatuated with each other. Carol, disgusted by this allegation, dumped Farrell. The crime boss revealed to Carol that he was illiterate and had an estranged daughter. Carol helped Garrigan in efforts to reconcile with his daughter, but he ended up losing her again when she learnt of his criminal position. When Mick O'Shea killed a gang member on Garrigan's orders, the gang kidnapped Ali, Mick's niece, and threatened to kill her if he didn't assassinate Garrigan. Lorcan, Carol's son, who was married to Ali, was horrified but he was eventually persuaded to help with the assassination attempt. Carol and Garrigan were in a car when Lorcan appeared on a motorbike with the shooter. As the shooter was about to pull the trigger, Lorcan realised his mother was in the car and rode off. The shooter's aim was put off and the shot wounded Garrigan. However, he survived the attack and ordered Farrell to find those responsible. The Ukrainians were furious that Mick goofed up but, realising that Garrigan would have all his goons on their trail, they released Ali and fled the country. Carol, in an attempt to protect her son from Garrigan's wrath, offered herself to him. Garrigan accepted and told her that Lorcan was safe. After recovering in hospital, Garrigan discovered that Mick was behind the assassination attempt and forced Mick to amputate one of his own fingers as punishment for double-crossing him. An undercover Garda, Rory Goff, later infiltrated Garrigan's gang in 2006 and manipulated an unaware Carol into giving him information, by having an affair with her. Armed with this info, the Gardaí raided one of Garrigan's booze runs. They also found drugs which Lorcan was piggybacking on the booze run. Meanwhile Lorcan discovered that Rory was passing information to the police but thought he was a police tout and not a Garda himself. Garrigan was furious that Lorcan implicated him in drug-dealing and ordered Lorcan to kill the undercover Garda. As the two men confronted each other, Lorcan fired the first shot, but Rory struck back with another, wounding Lorcan in the process. Rory survived his ordeal, but Lorcan's days were numbered. Lorcan made a complete deathbed confession to the Gardaí before he died in hospital. Garrigan decided to leave Carrigstown for the time being, but Detective Sergeant Byrne arrested him and took him to a Garda Station for questioning.

Sylvester Garrigan has supposedly taken Billy Meehan's place in Carrigstown for the time being, but his power over the Dublin suburb has diminished to significantly less than that of the suburb's former crime boss. Some debate remains over which crime boss is superior, and some have cited that Garrigan has been unable to maintain his power and empire as well as his predecessor. However, the fact that Garrigan had to deal with a growing number of obstacles and threats to his power in Carrigstown should not be discounted.

Sylvesters most notable phrase that rings out to all who watched him on the screen was when he would make a phone call he would exclaim with an eerie chill "Hello Lorcan,......Sylvester Garrigan Here"