Criminal shooting victim had been targeted previously

The convicted criminal injured in a gun attack early yesterday morning had escaped uninjured from a similar attack less than …

The convicted criminal injured in a gun attack early yesterday morning had escaped uninjured from a similar attack less than six weeks ago.

Mr Seamus "Shavo" Hogan (45), a former associate of murdered Dublin criminal Martin Cahill, was shot in the back at about 12.40 a.m. yesterday as he walked home from a pub with his wife, Lily. Gardai said the attack happened on Moeran Road, Walkinstown, near Crumlin village, Dublin. He was taken by ambulance to St James's Hospital but was released by mid-morning yesterday and was said to be recovering at home from shotgun pellet wounds to his shoulder.

With convictions for armed robbery and possession of firearms, Mr Hogan was a relatively high-profile associate of Martin Cahill, the Dublin criminal known as the General.

In a similar attack about a month ago, Mr Hogan was shot at with a handgun from a car as he walked along the street in Crumlin. He was not injured in the attack.

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Mr Hogan and another Cahill associate, Mr Martin Foley, known as the Viper, became known in the 1980s as spokesmen for a group of Dublin criminals who clashed with the Concerned Parents anti-drugs movement. They dubbed themselves the Concerned Criminals Action Committee. Mr Foley was kidnapped by the IRA in 1984. Three years ago he survived two murder attempts in the space of four months. He was shot in December 1995 by a gunman who approached him near Fatima Mansions, Rialto. In the second attack he was ambushed in his car in Crumlin, shot at four times and hit in the back.

Catherine Cleary

Catherine Cleary

Catherine Cleary, a contributor to The Irish Times, is a founder of Pocket Forests