A man murdered in north Dublin is believed to have been targeted by a group of men in a dispute over a drugs debt. However, gardaí believe the victim, Josh Fowler (63), was not the attackers’ target but was wounded when a dispute broke out at his house.
Mr Fowler was fatally stabbed outside the family home on Dunsink Green, Finglas, Dublin 11, just before 12.30am on Tuesday. Gardaí believe a group of men had called to the area looking for a younger man who they claimed owed money for drugs.
However, Mr Fowler was threatened by the men, with an altercation ensuing and resulting in his fatal stabbing. He survived the immediate aftermath of the attack and was treated by paramedics, who rushed to the scene with gardaí.
Though the victim was then taken by ambulance to James Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, efforts to save him were not successful and he was pronounced dead.
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No arrests had been made in the case by Tuesday evening, but gardaí were working on a definite line of inquiry. They believe they have identified at least some of the men who were on the scene when Mr Fowler, a father of four, was fatally stabbed.
On Tuesday, gardaí had closed a large section of Dunsink Green to traffic and pedestrians as members of the Garda Technical Bureau carried out a technical examination. The Office of the State Pathologist has also been informed of the killing, and a postmortem on the victim’s remains was due to be carried out on Tuesday.
Gardaí in Finglas are appealing to anyone who was on Dunsink Green, or in the general area, around the time of the fatal attack to come forward. They are especially keen to speak to anyone who may have been recording footage in the area at the time, including dashcam.
Mr Fowler had come to the attention of gardaí in the past and was jailed for two years in 2019 for his role in growing cannabis valued at several hundred thousand euro.
In May, 2018, Mr Fowler’s 35-year-old son, Shane, died when the motorbike he was riding hit a lamp-post very close to the family home in Finglas.
Shane Fowler was a member of the Finglas-based faction feuding with the a gang led by a senior figure in the drugs trade in the area. When Mr Fowler crashed his bike, a gun he was carrying fell on to the road, but was taken away before gardaí arrived.
Gardaí believe the gun was about to be used in a feud-related shooting, possibly a murder attempt on a man who was then in his mid-20s and aligned to the Kinahans and who has since become a much bigger figure in Dublin’s underworld.
Shane Fowler had survived a previous attempt on his life when he was shot and wounded, while in bed with his partner, after gunmen burst into their home in 2006, in an earlier and separate local feud.
Another son, Kaide Fowler (37), has also come to the attention of the Garda, including after he was convicted for his role in growing a cannabis crop at a house in Finglas in 2014. He also suffered a wound to his hand in 2018 after what appeared to be the accidental discharge of a firearm.
Kaide Fowler was also prosecuted, and received a suspended sentence in 2021, for trying to smuggle Diazepam valued at €50 into Mountjoy Prison, where his father was being held at the time. The court heard his father was in prison, in 2019, while grieving the death of his son, Stephen, in the motorbike crash the previous year. He had been prescribed the drug, which is not allowed in prisons.
Kaide Fowler said he immediately regretted his actions when stopped by prison officers at the jail. He added he had attempted to smuggle the tablets into the prison to help his grieving father, rather than for any monetary gain, and was give a suspended sentence.
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