Gardaí are investigating two shooting incidents over the weekend in which a Dublin drug-dealer narrowly escaped death and the occupants of a house in Limerick were targeted in a gun attack. Conor Lally and Kathryn Hayes report.
Extra gardaí have been drafted into Limerick from Cork in an effort to ease tensions between factions in the city.
Meanwhile, gardaí in Dublin are fearful that the latest shooting incident in the capital may result in a fresh round of tit-for-tat gun attacks over Christmas.
In the attack in Dublin on Saturday, a 33-year-old Finglas man was shot after he got out of his car in the Northway housing estate in the west of the city at 8pm.
The victim, who is from the Cappagh housing estate, was targeted by a gunman with a double-barrel sawn-off shotgun, who fired two shots.
The first, discharged at close range, missed the victim. The man then turned to run from the gunman but was wounded by a second shot.
Pellets from the shotgun lodged in the man's upper body and neck. Residents in the estate heard the shots and alerted the Garda and emergency services.
The victim was taken by ambulance to James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown, where he underwent surgery yesterday for a collapsed lung.
His condition is not believed to be life-threatening.
Gardaí are treating the incident as attempted murder. They believe the victim went to the scene of the shooting for a meeting with another figure involved in the drugs trade, where he was ambushed. Detectives said the motive for the shooting was not known but they are confident it was drug-related.
The victim, who has a history of heroin and cocaine abuse, was sentenced to seven years in prison in the mid-1990s after he was caught selling heroin in Dublin city centre.
The gunman was described as 1.8m (6ft) in height and of thin build. He wore black clothes, including a hooded jacket. He was also wearing either a black balaclava or beanie hat with a white logo.
Det Insp Brian Sherry said gardaí were appealing for the public's assistance. "We'd ask anybody who was in the Northway estate between 7.30 and 8.30 on Saturday night, who may have seen anything suspicious, to contact Finglas Garda station or any Garda station."
It is unclear if the gunman left the estate in a vehicle but he fled the scene of the shooting on foot.
In a separate incident, gardaí in Limerick were last night continuing to question a man in his 20s in relation to a gun attack on a housing estate in the city early yesterday.
Two shots were fired into a house in the Moyross estate at 4.20am. There were four people in the house at the time but nobody was injured.
A short time later, in another part of the estate, a man in his 20s carrying a semi-automatic pistol was arrested. He was taken to Mayorstone Garda station where he was being held last night under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
The shooting was the third in a week in the estate.
Last Tuesday night three men suffered minor pellet wounds in a drive-by shooting.
Last Sunday a man in his 20s was shot in Delmege Park. The shootings, including the latest one, are linked to the ongoing feud between rival factions in the city.
Extra gardaí were drafted into Limerick from Cork last week to help maintain a 24-hour Garda presence in Moyross and also in St Mary's Park, which was the scene of an unrelated shooting which also took place last Tuesday night.