Man arrested as gardaí prepare for murdered Ryan’s paramilitary funeral

Gardaí have arrested a man in connection with the murder of terror boss Alan Ryan last Monday.

It is understood that this man is suspected of possibly supplying the vehicle used in the murder.

The development comes as a major garda operation is put into place today for the funeral of the head of a Real IRA faction in north Dublin.

Specialist anti-terror officers and local detectives will conduct a surveillance operation throughout the day. Garda sources said they will compile a list of known RIRA members who attend the funeral and — more significantly — which associates and members do not turn up.

Ryan, 32, was gunned down as he walked along Grange Lodge Ave, Clongriffin, in broad daylight on Monday.

He was killed by a masked gunman who shot him from behind, causing him to collapse on the ground, before firing a fatal shot into his head at close range.

On Thursday night, detectives arrested a man in his late 40s as part of their investigation.

He was detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State 1939.

The man is believed to be on the fringes of the investigation.

A wake was held at the Ryan family home on Grange Abbey Drive last night.

The funeral Mass will take place at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Donaghmede at 10am today, followed by burial at Fingal Cemetery.

Ryan is survived by his mother Marion, brothers Anthony, Dermot, Eoin, and Vincent, sister Niamh, partner Stacey, and his daughter, Alannah.

A garda family liaison officer has worked with the family and has informed them a garda operation will be in place.

Officers will marshall the crowd between the church and the cemetery.

Garda sources said this was a funeral, with a grieving family, and that they had to respect that.

“There won’t be a heavy overt police presence, but there will be a policing plan in place and people will know we are there,” said a garda source.

He said gardaí would not tolerate any display or use of firearms at the burial.

Gardaí are unlikely to intervene if there are trappings of Republican militarism, including the use of the Tricolour on the coffin.

Various garda units will be present including members of the Special Detective Unit — which combats dissident Republican groups, as well as detectives investigating the murder.

“They will monitor who’s there,” said a garda source.

“Often more important is to see who is not there and their associates. That will all feed into the investigation.”

He said funerals such as these were useful in analysing the “dynamics of the organisation”, which he stressed was not a centralised structure, but one with individual, separate groupings.

He said investigators had not ruled out an internal motive for the attack, but repeated that there was a “long list” of criminal gangs with motives given Ryan’s violent campaign of extortion.

The Belfast branch of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement was the latest unit to issue a statement sympathising with Ryan’s family and praising him.