Mother says row over bike led to son's murder

THE mother of a man murdered as he sat in a car yesterday blamed his death on a five-year-long row over a motorbike.

The shooting dead of 27-year-old Noel Roche in Clontarf a month ago was believed to have been the fifth brutal killing in a bloody feud between two rival south Dublin drugs gangs. But his mother, Caroline, denied her son was a drug dealer or killer.

"Noel wasn't like that, he would not go out and shoot anyone. He wasn't into anything like that," Mrs Roche said.

"I know what Noel was. He wasn't a saint don't get me wrong, there's no saints walking around Dublin or any other part of Ireland ... I tell you something he was not what they are printing in the papers.

"I know he wasn't. They are going round saying that he was the leader of a drugs gang that was going around killing people."

Mr Roche, from Drimnagh, was shot in the head three times as he sat talking in a car on the busy Clontarf Road near the Yacht pub on November 15.

Gardaí believed his murder was in retaliation for the shooting dead of Gavin Byrne, 30, from Firhouse and Darren Geoghegan, 26, from Drimnagh on November 13 in Firhouse.

But Mrs Roche said the killing was linked to a petty row which has escalated. It was sparked, she claimed, by an argument between two men over a motorbike.

"As far as I know this all started years ago. People don't realise, it's so simple, two young fellas took to arguing over a stupid motorbike five years ago," she told RTÉ Radio.

Another son, John, was shot dead while walking along Military Road in Kilmainham last March.

"It escalated to houses being shot, my own house was shot up twice in two weeks, just because Noel and John knew one of the fellas that had been arguing," Mrs Roche said.

"Then it went on to cars being burned and different things like that, and then it ended up with someone getting killed on the Crumlin Road and then it ended with young fellas being shot in the houses. People were running in and shooting them in their beds. It's just madness, total madness."

Crimestoppers yesterday offered a €10,000 reward for information on recent gangland killings.

Gardaí also handed out leaflets appealing for witnesses at Crumlin shopping centre. People who believe they can help solve the Roche murder, and other linked killings, are being urged to call Crimestoppers on 1800-250025.

So far, seven people, including John Roche, have died in the gangland feud.

Mrs Roche yesterday asked for end to the bloody feud: "I just ask them to stop. They have no realisation of what they are doing to families. If there is anyone out there who knows anything at all, they might think it's the simplest thing that they saw that night, just ring the police and tell them. It might just help."