Search goes on for abducted brothers

SIX days of exhaustive searches by the army and gardaí have failed to locate two Limerick brothers kidnapped last Thursday.

The garda water unit will also join in the search for Kieran, 19, and Eddie Ryan, 20, today.

Soldiers from Clonmel and Limerick again assisted gardaí yesterday in a search of the wooded Cratloe hills, seven miles from the Ryan’s home in Kileely, Limerick City.

The brothers’ family and friends are continuing to comb a wide area along the Limerick-Clare border for the two men. They are hoping the brothers, who are the sons of murder victim Eddie Ryan, will be found alive.

“We can’t accept that they are dead. We will keep going until we find them. If the people who took them have any conscience or decency they will let us know. We are praying that Eddie Ryan is watching over his two boys and he’ll bring them home safely,” said relative Charlotte Stanners.

Ms Stanners, who is related to the Ryans through marriage, said the extended family was living in constant fear.

“We are not sleeping easy at night. You wouldn’t get this in the North. Ten years ago this would have been settled with a fist fight, but it’s different now,” she said.

The mother of two warned that a bitter feud in the city could escalate in the coming weeks following the kidnapping.

“Things have to get worse to get better. We will stand our ground,” she said.

The 24-year-old also revealed that some families involved in a feud on the northside of the city have taken their children out of school.

“Our kids are still going to school but people from the other side haven’t let their children go there since last Thursday,” she said.

Two years ago children from feuding families were transported to school in large convoys for protection.

The possibility that an outside gang was hired to kidnap the two brothers hasn’t been ruled out by gardaí.