Man suspected of ordering bouncer’s murder

The suspect, aged 34, is being held at Henry Street Garda Station under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

Shortly after the murder of Mr Fitzgerald, the suspect left Limerick for Britain and was subsequently arrested there for having a high-powered gun for which he was jailed for 11 years.

He was released in Feb 2011 and returned to Limerick.

Two men were convicted in relation to the shooting:

- James Martin Cahill, now 32, and from Britain, pleaded guilty to the murder of Mr Fitzgerald. He was paid €10,000 to carry out the murder.

- Garry Campion, aged 32, who was convicted of the murder, drove Cahill on a motorbike to Brookhaven Walk where Mr Fitzgerald lived with his wife and children in Nov 2002.

They waited in the dark and Cahill approached Mr Fitzgerald after he got out of his 4x4 after finishing work at Docs nightclub and shot him dead.

Another man, Anthony Kelly, a Kilrush businessman, was found not guilty of the murder.

Mr Fitzgerald was targeted after he prevented members of a notorious city gang selling drugs at Docs. The leader of the gang threatened him and Mr Fitzgerald made a complaint to gardaí.

The gang leader feared that if Mr Fitzgerald followed up his complaint in a court, a suspended sentence hanging over the gang leader would be activated.

The gang leader ordered the murder of Mr Fitzgerald.

The man arrested yesterday is a keen boxing fan and used to regularly travel to Madison Square Gardens in New York to attend major fights.

After a man he ordered to be murdered survived multiple bullet wounds, he sent the gang members involved in the attack to the US on the pretext of going to Disneyland in Florida. But they spent most of their time in the US on firing ranges, brushing up on the use of high-powered guns.