Charity event saved children from park shooting terror

HUNDREDS of children escaped the terror of a triple shooting yesterday morning because a charity event curtailed their usual weekly football gathering at their local park.

Three men in their 20s who were drinking at playing fields in Corduff Park in west Dublin were shot at close range by two masked men who walked calmly across an open green to reach them and escaped on foot into a nearby housing estate.

Two of the victims managed to make their way to a house close by to raise the alarm despite their injuries, but a third was shot in the head and collapsed on the spot. He was critically ill in hospital last night, while the condition of his companions was described as serious.

Two of the men are related and all three are from the area and known to gardaí, but are not major players in criminal activity and are believed to have been targeted over a local dispute.

The brazen broad daylight attack, which took place at 11.15am, shocked the local community, but it could have been much worse, as normally the fields would be thronged with members of Corduff Football Club.

Club PRO John McGuinness said all matches were postponed and training sessions curtailed to let members take part in the Walk of Dreams fundraising event that was taking place in the city for football star John Giles’ charitable foundation.

“Any other Sunday there would have been 350 kids down here. We’re here from 9am to 2pm and the place is packed. As it was, my own under-14s were training here. We meet at 11am up at the sports centre and then go on to the pitch so, if this had happened 15 minutes later, the kids would have been out there. We’re just grateful none of them were affected,” said Mr McGuinness.

Gardaí sealed off the entire park as forensics experts scoured the area. The attackers ran into the adjacent Edgewood Lawns after the attack.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter said he shared local people’s sense of revulsion. “This type of incident is revolting to all law abiding citizens. I call on every person who can help the gardaí in any way with even the smallest scrap of information to make contact with them.”