Machine-gun attack on home of gang associate
Jimmy Collins and his wife, Deirdre, and other family members who were in the house at Hyde Avenue, Ballinacura Weston, were not injured.
Some hours later, a pipe bomb was thrown through the window of a sitting room at a house in Bengal Terrace. Although the pipe bomb — thrown from a nearby railway line — exploded in the house, no one was injured.
It is suspected both incidents may be linked.
Gardaí are pursuing a line of inquiry that a lesser-known drugs gang, based in Southill, had a “falling out” with the McCarthy-Dundons.
Jimmy Collins, 42, survived an attack on his life last April when a gunman opened fire on him as he rode a piebald horse down Hyde Road.
Up to 15 bullets were fired at him and he was hit twice. He was taken to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital where he was treated for the wounds which were not serious. The attack, at that time, was carried out by a member of the rival Keane-Collopy gang.
Collins recently appeared in newspapers and magazines baring his upper body tattoos.
Some of the tattoos carry the names of friends who have been murdered in the continuing feud.
In one newspaper interview, Collins said: “Blood will flow in the streets of Limerick and the only businesses here will be undertakers and funeral parlours.”
He also predicted an all-out war on the rival Keane-Collopys.
He recently claimed in a Sunday newspaper that he wanted to broker a truce with the Keane-Collopys.
Jack Collopy, whose son Philip Collopy accidentally shot himself last month while messing around with a Glock handgun at his home in St Mary’s Park, was quoted in a report saying that his family wanted peace for the sake of the children and grandchildren. He wanted to sent this message to the opposing McCarthy-Dundon families.
Jimmy Collins, responding to that message, said he could trust Jack Collopy.
Collins, however, said talks had broken down and nobody wanted what was going on.
All sides, he said, had to “sit around the table” and put a stop to the attacks.
Up to six shots were fired at the Collins home in yesterday’s attack. The gunman got out of a grey car which sped off after the attack.
The car was later found burned out at Rathuard on the outskirts of the city, not far from the site where a number of pipe bombs were found two weeks ago in Garda searches.
Gardaí from Roxboro were yesterday conducting forensic examinations at the home of Collins, as well as the house in Bengal Terrace where the pipe bomb was detonated.
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