Man arrested over gangland murder

Gardaí have arrested the driver who escaped from the scene of a gangland murder in Dublin.

The man was travelling in a black Ford Mondeo which was sprayed with bullets outside the Yacht pub on the Clontarf Road at 9.30pm on Tuesday.

He managed to escape by running to a nearby house but his passenger, Noel Roche, 27, was killed.

Superintendent Nicholas Conneely of Raheny Garda Station confirmed that detectives had arrested a man in the city centre this evening in connection with the murder investigation.

“He is being held at Raheny Garda Station under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act,” he said.

He said there was no truth whatsoever in reports that the man had turned himself in voluntarily.

The murder of Noel Roche was believed to be a reprisal for the shooting of Darren Geoghegan and Gavin Byrne in the Firhouse area of the city on Sunday night.

Mr Roche’s brother, John, was shot dead in Kilmainham last March as part of a five-year feud between two rival gangs that has now claimed eight lives.