Disbelief in Walkinstown over murder of ‘pleasant’ Edward Nugent

There was a sense of disbelief in Walksinstown in Dublin on Monday at the killing of Edward Nugent, with locals saying the 64-year-old was a nice man who did not cause any trouble.

The former truck driver was shot by a gunman after he went to answer his front door. Gardaí are trying to establish a motive for the murder and believe it may have been a case of mistaken identity.

Bullet holes were clearly visible in the porch window at his home on Harty Avenue, where Mr Nugent lived with his wife Ann and son Thomas. Mr Nugent’s other son, Kieran, also lives nearby.

A local woman said that area of Walkinstown was “very quiet”. She said Mr Nugent always greeted her on the street and that he was a “very pleasant” man. There was “no harm in him at all,” she said.

Other locals said they knew him from the Kestrel, his local pub. One customer there described him as a “sound” man who was “a little bit flash” during his time running a waste removal business.

The man said Mr Nugent “loved fishing” and that he used to go out regularly in his boat. There was a small fishing boat in the driveway of Mr Nugent’s home on Monday morning.

Locals said they would often see him tinkering with the boat but that recent health problems had prevented him from working.

Fianna Fáil councillor Catherine Ardagh said Walkinstown was quite a settled area with a long-standing local community.

“It’s a nice place to buy a house,” she said. “They’re nice streets so I’d say it [the shooting] was quite shocking for the residents.”

“There would be a great sense of community around Walkinstown and Crumlin,” she added. “Everybody’s just shocked and they’re just reading the news and trying to figure out what’s happened.”

“People think: ‘Oh, Crumlin—this sort of thing happens all the time’. But it’s not like that, especially Walkinstown… you don’t hear about shootings on the roads in Walkinstown.”