Gardai are investigating a number of possible motives behind an apparent "punishment" shooting in Dundalk late on Monday night. Relatives of Mr Jimmy Quinn McDonagh said he was pinned to the ground by five masked men who fired two shots at him. He had an operation to remove a bullet from his leg in St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, yesterday.
Known as "The Boxer", the injured man was due to take up a challenge to fight in Manchester next month. Earlier this year he won a bare-fisted fight with another boxer from the travelling community. The fight was held just outside Drogheda and earned him the title of "king of the travellers".
A team of Garda technical experts examined the Spinning Wheel pub in Bridge Street, Dundalk, yesterday. Mr McDonagh got a message to meet someone there. When he arrived, a gang of men entered by the back door and asked him to go with them.
Mr McDonagh refused, and a scuffle ensued in which he was held down. One of the men produced a handgun and fired into the back of his left leg behind the knee. Family members said another shot was also fired but Mr McDonagh had struggled off the floor and it missed him. He was taken to the Louth County Hospital and transferred to St Vincent's.
His family say they do not know why he was targeted. "He was only into the `bare boxing' and that is fair, where there are no weapons or anything. It is terrible, he is not a violent person," said one family member.
Another said: "You could go anywhere in this town and ask anybody about Jimmy and they would say he was a lovely fellow. Even the guards have loads of time for him."
Garda Supt Michael Staunton, of Dundalk, said: "We don't think there is any subversive connotation but there is obviously a dispute. There is a possibility it was a punishment-type assault."
He said gardai were keeping an open mind on whether it was associated with the "king of the travellers" fist fight or another internal dispute involving the travelling community or if there was a paramilitary involvement.