Murdered man warned feud wasn’t finished

JOHN RYAN was the first to speak out when his missing nephews turned up safe and well after they were allegedly abducted last January.

The 47-year-old was relieved Kieran, 19 and Eddie, 20, were unharmed. But he warned the feud wasn’t over.

He said it could linger on for a long time unless both sides were willing to make peace. Five months later John Ryan became the third fatality of the violent dispute.

Not even a move from his heavily fortified home on the Lee Estate to Moyross could save him.

He has joined his brother Eddie, 40, and crime boss Kieran Keane, 36, on the feud’s bloody death list. the morning his nephews triumphantly celebrated their homecoming, John Ryan seemed both bullish and calm.

His composure was remarkable given that the leader of the

rival Keane gang was murdered less than 15 hours earlier. “They’ve started the whole thing up again. We don’t want any trouble. We want no revenge,” Ryan said.

“If they want to call it quits, we’ll call it quits, if they don’t then that’s their problem,” he said.

Behind all Ryan’s tough talk was the simple fact that crime gangs in Limerick are battling each other to gain control of the drugs trade in the Mid-West.

The gangs are among the most organised, well-armed and ruthless criminals in the country, according to gardaí.

Sawn-off shotguns, bombs and rounds of ammunition have been seized by the gardaí as part of their investigations into the gangs. The criminals also have powerful handguns and machine guns.

The feud primarily involves four families from the city’s northside and has resulted in a spate of shootings over the past three years.

One family group has for many years dominated the illegal drugs trade in the region but this gang has become increasingly isolated.

Gardaí aren’t confident the two factions will ever attempt to end the violent feud. One senior garda said: “It’s unlikely that will happen. Too much has gone on and one gang sees itself as totally superior to the other.”

The latest phase of the inter-gang dispute was sparked following a fracas between children from feuding families in a Limerick city schoolyard.

Then two teenage girls started fighting in a disco and the feud, between families that were once close allies, intensified.

Another fight between the girls in a field the following day culminated in one of them biting the other’s ear off.

It is believed that some days later the injured girl’s family captured the other girl’s mother and marked the letter S on her face with a knife.

The ongoing feud escalated when a gunman shot dead Eddie Ryan, the father of Kieran and Eddie Jnr, in the Moose Bar, close to St John’s Cathedral, in November 2000.

Kieran Keane was reputed to be Eddie Ryan’s killer.

Eddie Ryan had tried to kill a leading member of the Keane gang some weeks earlier at Hasset’s Cross, but his gun jammed.

Gardaí investigated 40 incidents following the killing of Eddie Ryan including shootings and petrol bomb attacks.

Then Eddie Ryan’s sons were apparently abducted last January.

Their distraught mother Mary feared they were dead during their six-day disappearance.

However, within days it was Limerick’s number one criminal, Kieran Keane, who was murdered in an execution-style killing at Drombana on the outskirts of the city.

Five men have been charged with the murder of Kieran Keane and the attempted murder of Owen Treacy on January 29 last.