Gardaí question four over 'gangland' flats shootings

Four people were being questioned by detectives today after two men were shot dead in the second fatal gun attack within days.

The killing happened at a flats complex in Pearse Street close to Dublin’s city centre where Paddy Mooney, 58, and Brendan Molyneux, 48, were gunned down at around 6.45pm yesterday.

The murders came a day after the body of 29-year-old John Paul Joyce, a major drug-trafficking figure, was found shot dead in a ditch in the north of the city.

The two attacks are not believed to be linked.

The vicious killings are the first gun-related deaths of 2010.

Mr Mooney suffered head wounds and was rushed to St James’s Hospital, but later died.

Mr Molyneux was shot in the chest and was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital in a critical condition but was pronounced dead later.

Murder squad detectives later swooped on several locations in Finglas and the city centre and arrested three men and a woman over the double killing.

They were being questioned at Pearse Street, Harcourt Terrace, Kevin Street and Kilmainham garda stations under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act.

Two of the men were in their mid 40s, while the third man and woman are in their mid 20s.

The men were killed in a ground-floor flat in Pearse House, a large local authority estate with some 450 units.

Neighbours spoke of their shock at the brutal killings and independent councillor Mannix Flynn said residents were disgusted by the deaths.

“There is just shock and revulsion in relation to these murders,” he said.

“This is shameful, premeditated murder.”

It is understood some neighbours in the complex heard gunshots.

It was not immediately clear if the murders were gangland-related.

Labour Party councillor Kevin Humphreys said the violent deaths were out of character for the area.

“There is a great deal of shock,” he said.

“This is something that would not happen on Pearse Street. This would be unusual for that complex.”

Detectives probing the killing of Mr Joyce, 29, believe the murder may be linked to a warring feud between rival drug gangs.

His bloodied remains were found partially submerged in water in Dunbro lane behind Dublin Airport on Saturday at around 1.30pm.

It is believed the settled traveller from Grove Lane, on the Malahide Road in the north of the capital, was shot at least twice with a handgun.

Mr Joyce – whose brother Thomas was gunned down last June close to his home - was a leading criminal figure in a drug trafficking gang and was reported missing on Thursday by his girlfriend, garda sources said.

It is not yet known whether he was killed elsewhere and dumped at the ditch or killed on the quiet lane.

Mr Joyce’s brother Thomas, 21, was killed in a hail of bullets as he fled several armed men on a halting site in Grove Lane last June.

Early last year the Criminal Assets Bureau succeeded in having two cars seized from the younger Joyce after the High Court found they were purchased from the proceeds of crime.

A large quantity of cocaine, cannabis, firearms and ammunition have also been recovered during raids in and around the halting site in Grove Lane on the Malahide Road in recent years.