John Gilligan expected to recover from attack

Former crime boss John Gilligan is expected to recover after he escaped with his life despite being shot some four times at close range.

The 61-year-old had only arrived at his brother’s house in Clondalkin, west Dublin, where a christening party was being held when two masked gunmen entered and fired up to six shots in his direction.

Gilligan, the leader of the gang that murdered journalist Veronica Guerin in June 1996, was hit in the leg, hip, chest and stomach in the hallway of the house on Greenfort Crescent at 7pm on Saturday.

Despite reports to the contrary, gardaí said Gilligan was not wearing a bullet-proof jacket.

The assailants fled the scene in what was described as a silver jeep, as a relative of Gilligan contacted emergency services.

Witnesses said Gilligan was conscious when ambulance crews arrived and was talking to paramedics.

He was taken to James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown, where he later underwent surgery.

He was described yesterday as being in a stable condition and is expected to make a recovery.

His wife Geraldine, brother Thomas and daughter Tracey were seen visiting him yesterday.

It is the second shooting attempt on Gilligan. Last December a gunman entered a pub on the Navan Road and sought him out.

However, Gilligan was in a neighbouring pub on the Navan Road, which runs along the northern edge of Phoenix Park, and avoided being shot.

Gardaí formally warned Gilligan his life was in danger, but the notoriously arrogant criminal publicly dismissed the attempt as kids playing a prank.

At that time it was reported that a criminal who rowed with Gilligan when both of them served time in Portlaoise Prison may have been behind that attack, possibly hired by another major crime boss.

Detectives in Ronanstown Garda Station investigating the shooting are compiling a list of possible suspects for the attack. They were also searching for the silver jeep, which has not yet turned up. Gilligan had gone to the house of his brother, Thomas, where members of the extended family had gathered to celebrate a christening.

The house was the first place Gilligan went to after being freed from Portlaoise Prison last October, followed by press photographers.

In a separate shooting, a man in Kildare was arrested in connection with shots fired at a house in Derrinturn, near the border with Co Offaly, in the early hours of yesterday. A 24-year-old man was arrested under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

In a separate investigation, gardaí issued an appeal for information on the fatal shooting of Paul Cullen at a pub in Cabra, north Dublin on February 3, 2013.

Mr Cullen was gunned down in the Cabra House pub after the pillion passenger on a motorbike entered the premises and shot him.