King Scum

Despite being HiV positive, Felloni is getting better treatment in prison than he would get on the outside. This hasn't stopped him trying to get out. He appealed unsuccessfully to the Court of Criminal Appeal, but the court dismissed his plea, so that his twenty year sentence still stands. At the time of his appeal, Felloni was serving the longest sentence for drug-dealing ever handed down in Irish court. Two years later, however, John Gilligan set the new record when he received a 28-year sentence in the Special Criminal Court. Felloni has been granted neither temporary nor compassionate release. When his father Renaldo died, Tony didn't get out for the funeral. Every one of his six children still has problems with heroin addiction, and each one has been in trouble since their release from prison. This is a story of serial and ongoing dysfunction, a glimpse at the hopelessness of the Irish urban under-class, and a read every bit as riveting as the first edition of the book.