A second man was shot dead in Dublin on Monday night, hours after a gangland war between Ireland’s two most notorious criminal organisations, triggered by a gun attack on a Dublin boxing weigh-in, claimed its sixth victim.
The first man to die on Monday was named as Michael Barr, a Northern Irishman who had dissident republican links. He was shot in the head at least three times inside the Sunset House pub in the Ballybough district of Dublin.
Less than three hours later, 37-year-old Tom Farnan was shot dead as he opened the door of his home in west Dublin’s Clondalkin area, close to the city’s grand canal. Neighbours reported hearing up to five shots.
Farnan’s family said he had minor criminal convictions but was not a signficant player in the Dublin crime gang scene.
His younger sister, Jenny, told the Irish Independent: “I just want to put it out there that he was not involved in any of the gangland or criminal activities. He was just a normal decent man, a big brother, a loving son and a brilliant father. He was the best brother I could have ever asked for. If anybody asked for anything then he would do it for them.”
Barr, 34, was scheduled to appear in Ireland’s anti-terror, no-jury, special criminal court on Thursday. Security sources had linked him to a gunman, also from Northern Ireland, who was part of the gang that opened fire at the weigh-in at Dublin’s Regency hotel.
He also faced charges in 2014, including handling stolen property and IRA membership. Last week, police raided Barr’s home in north Dublin in connection with the Regency attack.
The pub shooting on Monday night was linked to continuing gang warfare between Costal del Sol-based Irish drug smuggler Christy Kinahan and north Dublin career criminal Gerry “The Monk” Hutch.
A gang allegedly controlled by Hutch has been accused of the audacious armed attack at the boxing weigh-in, during which gunmen burst into the hotel wearing bibs emblazoned with “Garda” [police].
David Byrne, allegedly an enforcer for Kinahan in Dublin, was shot dead in the attack, which was captured by TV cameras covering the boxing event.
It is claimed that Hutch’s gang launched the attack in revenge for the murder of Hutch’s nephew Gary by men linked to Kinahan in Spain last September. Gary Hutch was chased around his Andalusian apartment before being shot dead inside the villa. His killers believed he had told Irish police and Interpol about a drug shipment that was intercepted.
In retaliation for the Regency hotel attack, gangsters loyal to Kinahan are accused of shooting dead Hutch’s brother, taxi driver Eddie Hutch, 59, and a cigarette smuggler, Noel “Mr Kingsize” Duggan.
Less than two weeks ago, 24-year-old Martin O’Rourke was shot dead near a central Dublin pub. His death is believed to be a case of mistaken identity, as men loyal to Kinahan were hunting for a member of Hutch’s gang.
Independent Dublin councillor Niall Ring, who was in the Ballybough area shortly after the Sunset House shooting, said government promises to deploy 55 extra armed police officers in gang hotspots by June may be too late.
Ring told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme: “[The armed support] has to be given now … June is too late. By June, more people may have been murdered.”
