Mother killed as drive-by gunmen target house party
Donna Cleary, 22, was hit by at least one of five rounds fired at random into a house where up to 40 guests were enjoying the party on Dublin’s northside.
Gardaí have begun a murder hunt, focusing on three men who called to the house earlier in the night to try to join in the gathering, but who were refused entry.
In a chilling threat, they warned they would be back.
Detectives believe the same men drove back a short time later, pulled up outside the house and fired indiscriminately through the downstairs window.
Ms Cleary, who was in the living room, was hit in the upper body. She was taken by ambulance to Beaumont Hospital, a few minutes’ drive away, where she died two hours later.
The gunmen drove a large silver car and gardaí appealed to anyone who saw them or the vehicle before, during or after the shooting to contact them.
Supt Noel McLoughlin said: “There must be people out there who have some knowledge of what happened. They must have some knowledge of the vehicle or the people involved in this horrific murder. I would appeal to them to come and talk to us.”
The shooting happened at about 2.30am yesterday at the home of Rhoda Flannagan, her mother and three young children at Adare Green in Coolock, where a 40th birthday party was being held for her sister, Edel Murtagh.
Ms Cleary, a mother of one, was among the invited guests. Supt McLoughlin said the suspects were not invited to the party and that there was no suggestion of any serious conflict between them and those inside before they were turned away from the door.
Supt McLoughlin said Ms Cleary was not specifically targeted and that any one of the guests could have been killed.
He ruled out drugs or a gangland feud.
“We are following no definite line of inquiry at this stage. It’s difficult to know what the motive was,” he said.
Ms Cleary, a catering worker with Irish Ferries, lived with her parents and two-year-old son Clayton at Castlekevin Road, a short distance from Adare Green.
