Four arrests in murder probe

FOUR more people were arrested by Limerick gardaí yesterday in connection with the murder of 47-year-old John Ryan.

This brings to 11 the number of people who have been detained in relation to the killing, which took place in the Thomondgate area of the city on July 7. Seven others have been released without charge.

Gardaí took three youths and a woman in her 30s into custody early yesterday morning, after they were arrested in the northside of the city.

“They are being detained for questioning at Henry Street, Roxboro and Mayorstone Garda stations as part of the investigation into John Ryan’s murder,” said Superintendent Willie Keane, who is leading the probe.

Father of six John Ryan, from Cliona Park, Moyross, was gunned down by a pillion passenger on a motorbike, who fired four shots from a handgun.

Mr Ryan was building a patio outside a house in Canon Breen Park in Thomondgate when he was shot.

A red motorbike which gardaí believe was used in the killing was recovered shortly afterwards at the rear of a coal shed in the St Mary’s Park area of the city.

There have been strong pleas by church and civic leaders in the city for an end to the “vicious cycle of violence” between rival feuding gangs.

Mr Ryan’s murder was a direct reprisal for the murder of Kieran Keane at Drombanna on the outskirts of the city on January 29.

Five men have been charged with Keane’s murder and the attempted murder of his nephew Owen Treacy, who survived multiple stab wounds on the same occasion.