Gardaí brace for revenge as two die in bloody feud

GARDAÍ were bracing for revenge attacks last night after a bloody feud claimed two more lives.

The fatal shooting of two men in south west Dublin on Sunday night brings to 17 the number of gangland-type shootings so far this year.

The total for 2005 compares to just four gangland murders in 2004 and 15 in 2003.

The double shooting in Firhouse brings to six the number of men killed as a result of a five-year feud between two gangs in south west Dublin.

The two men were sitting in a parked car in the Carrigwood Estate at around 10pm when two other men approached them and shot them in the head.

The killers fled in a Northern Ireland-registered BMW which was found burnt in a nearby Glenvara Park estate.

Firearms were discovered inside the car. Although burnt, garda ballistic experts were last night trying to match the weapons with the bullets found in the victims.

Chief Supt Pat Brehony, who is leading the investigation, said they did not yet have any descriptions of the killers, but said house-to- house enquiries were continuing.

He appealed for anyone in the area on Sunday night, and before, who saw anything suspicious to contact Tallaght Garda Station on 01-6666000.

The murders are the latest deaths in a spiralling feud between two gangs based in the Drimnagh and Crumlin areas of south west Dublin.

Gardaí have identified four previous deaths linked with the feud: John Roche, aged 24, from Crumlin, was shot dead at Kilmainham, in Dublin’s south inner city last March.

Paul Warren, aged 23, from St Teresa’s Gardens, in the south inner city, was shot in a nearby pub on February 25, 2004.

Joseph Rattigan, from Drimnagh, was shot dead in the area in July 2002.

Declan Gavin, aged 20, from Drimnagh, shot fatally stabbed in Crumlin in March 2001.

There have been a number of near-fatal shootings between the gangs this year, including a gun attack in broad daylight in Drimnagh last August.

Under Operation Anvil, local gardaí, supported by armed officers from the elite Emergency Response Unit, have been trying to keep a lid of the violence.

But gardaí yesterday said it was physically not possible to sit on all the criminals 24 hours a day.

Gardaí are now preparing for revenge. “The risk of retaliation is high. There will be retribution,” said one garda.

Local Labour deputy Mary Upton accused Justice Minister Michael McDowell of not getting to grips with the scale of the problem.

Mr McDowell said record resources had been deployed against violent crime in recent years.

“There are a group of people in Dublin, two groups of people in particular, who are engaged in a battle to control cocaine and other drugs supplies in Dublin and are willing to use any method whatsoever to bring about superiority over the other and the gardaí have been aware for some time that members of these groups intended to use lethal force on each other and have been doing their level best to contain and prevent such operations.”

He said Sunday’s killing was “a careful, cold and ruthless trap.”

There have been 15 fatal gangland-type shootings already this year, some four of which were more the result of personal rows.