Calls for 'special policing operation' in Dublin suburb

A police tent at the scene in Deanstown Avenue area of Finglas, Dublin, where a man in his 20s was pronounced dead on Sunday. Picture: PA

A special garda operation is needed in Finglas, north Dublin, to stamp down on a worsening gangland feud in the area, which claimed its first life on Sunday.

James Whelan, aged 29, was shot dead on Deanstown Avenue in the early hours of Sunday, amid suspicions he had targeted, or was about to target, a house linked with a rival gang boss.

The feud has escalated this year, with a large number of shootings, bomb attacks as well as abductions and beatings.

Councillors have made a number of calls on Garda HQ and the Government to sign off on additional garda resources for the area given the level of violence going on.

“I was in the area on Sunday and there is a deep sense of shock in the community, said Fianna Fáil councillor Keith Connolly, who chairs the policing committee for Dublin City Council North West area.

“There needs to be a serious ramping up of garda presence in the area. There is a very high level of feuding and I am calling for additional resources from An Garda Síochána, from the commissioner and the minister for justice.” 

Dublin’s north inner city received a massive increase in uniformed and armed police presence after the Hutch gang shot dead Kinahan lieutenant David Byrne and unsuccessfully targeted Kinahan boss Daniel Kinahan at the Regency Hotel in 2016.

High visibility patrols and armed checkpoints, by the Armed Support Unit and the Emergency Response Unit, were conducted in the area, over a period of years.

“It could be like that,” said Mr Connolly. “Finglas needs to be seen as a special case, with a special operation, with checkpoints and a visible presence to reassure people and to curtail activities.” 

He said recent garda activity in the Ratoath area of Finglas was an example of good work, where they managed to shut down a drug-dealing fortress one of the feuding gangs had set up in a house.

Along with searches of nine houses in that area, involving the seizure of weapons and cash, Dublin City Council purchased the dealing house from a private owner and secured it.

“That garda presence was for a few days,” Mr Connolly said. “We need a garda presence to stop this feud and curtail it and show the criminals there is a garda presence on the ground and that ‘you will not get away with this’.” 

He said he would like to see the Criminal Assets Bureau join such a response: “In the past, they have put a bit of a microscope on some of these individuals.” 

He said the violence was affecting ordinary people living in the area: “The vast majority of people in Finglas are law-abiding. Unfortunately, it’s a minority that are feuding, who have no regard for life, either their own or others.”