IRA killer shot dead

Gardaí are bracing themselves for retaliation against gangland figures after a senior leader of the Real IRA in Dublin was shot dead.

Alan Ryan, 32, a notorious gangland figure, was gunned down yesterday afternoon near his home on Grange Lodge Ave, Clongriffin, Dublin.

Ryan was walking along a footpath with another man when he was shot a number of times, including in the head, by at least two gunmen in what one garda described as a “clinical” attack.

The gunmen escaped in a silver Volvo, found burned out on nearby Hole in the Wall Rd shortly afterwards.

Ryan’s companion was shot in the leg, but did not sustain serious injuries.

Garda sources said Ryan had “a long list of enemies”, and a large team of detectives was last night identifying those with the motive and capability for such for an attack.

Ryan was a leading figure in a north Dublin RIRA faction that had embarked on a war against criminal gangs across Dublin and was behind several murders and attempted murders.

The faction muscled its way into the door security business and launched a campaign of extortion against gangs involved in robberies and drug trafficking and demanded “taxes”, typically 20%, from them.

Tensions were high in north Dublin last night and officers from the Special Detective Unit, which targets terror groups, joined local units in patrols and check points. “You’d expect there’ll be comeback [from the RIRA] to this,” said a senior garda. “Their status would diminish if they didn’t. It’s all part of their racketeering interests.”

However, gardaí will also examine the possibility that associates within the RIRA could have carried out the attack.

Ryan’s gang took on a Finglas-based crime network run by Eamon Dunne before his Apr 2010 murder. They carried out an attempted murder on one of the senior figures of that gang.

The faction is suspected of involvement in a number of murders, including that of Sean Winters in Portmarnock in Sept 2010 and Colm Owens in Finglas in Jul 2010.

As a result of their actions, several gangs, including individuals linked to the Provisional IRA, banded together to take on Ryan’s faction.

There are several RIRA gangs in Dublin, including in Bluebell-Inchicore, Tallaght, and Ballyfermot, as well as north Dublin.

A Corkman living in Tallaght is a senior national figure in the RIRA and has close links to senior figures in Cork, where the group has upped its fight against drug dealers in recent years.

Ryan was among nine men arrested when gardaí raided a RIRA training bunker in Stanmullen, Co Meath, in 1999.

He was jailed for four years for that and received a three-year term for possession of a firearm.

Supt Ronan Galligan reassured the community that gardaí were doing everything in their power to catch the perpetrators. He called on anyone with information to contact the Garda Confidential Line at 1800 666111 or the Coolock Garda incident room at 01 6664206.