THE THREAT of a return to IRA violence is everywhere in the Taghnevan Estate in Lurgan, Co Armagh. Tricolours and republican gunmen are painted on the walls. "David Trimble will tremble if the Provos reassemble", reads one slogan.
Across the road is Conor Park. Christmas tree lights shine from some houses in the street, but the residents have been jolted out of the festive mood.
Ian Lyons (31) was sitting in a car with his girlfriend, who lives there, on New Year's Night when two gunmen came out of the darkness and blasted him in the chest. He died in hospital a few hours later.
"He was a lovely big lad", said a woman in the post office. "He loved a joke. We're all shocked at what happened."
Her friend said that it was a horrible start to the new year "We thought that sort of thing was behind us with the ceasefire. We thought there'd be no more guns used in Lurgan."
Direct Action Against Drugs claimed responsibility, but most people believed that the IRA was involved.
Mr Lyons lived in a flat in Arthur Street, down the road from his girlfriend's house. He had a two year old son. He was involved in the drugs trade in a minor way and had received several warnings from the IRA, according to local people.
Det Insp Derek McLaughlin, who is leading the RUC murder investigation, said that there was widespread revulsion in the town.
However, some support was voiced for the killing. "Ian Lyons was a bad lot", said one man. "He was dealing in ecstasy. Don't tell me that's only a soft drug. It was dope yesterday, it's ecstasy today, it'll be heroin tomorrow."
He wasn't surprised by the attack "We all said it was only a matter of time before he was killed. It wasn't fair that the drug dealers were being shot in Belfast, but they were running about the streets of Lurgan. We needed a few boys to come down and sort them out.
"Ian Lyons and his mates thought they owned this town. Maybe now they'll keep a low profile. Lyons deserved what he got. If you play with fire, you get burnt. He left Lurgan for a while he should never have come back. There are plenty around here who didn't like him."
An elderly man agreed "I didn't know Ian Lyons, but I've heard the stories about him. He won't be missed."
But a customer in the local newsagent's said that Mr Lyons should not be demonised "It's easy to blacken a man's character when he's lying in a box and can't defend himself.
"Sure, Ian had his moods, like everybody else, but he was decent, too. He had a car, and if anybody needed to go to the shops or to Portadown, he'd say jump in and I'll take you down." The man said that Mr Lyons was "small fry" in the drugs trade.
"He sold E tablets in a few discos, that kind of thing. There is no serious drug problem in Lurgan. Ecstasy is the most that's available. It's not as if youngsters are breaking into houses and robbing old people to get money for a hit.
"There's a bigger drink than drug problem in the town. But the IRA are very selective. They aren't shooting publicans for selling alcohol. And they're not killing shopkeepers for selling cigarettes."
Yesterday a statement from the Lyons family denounced the lack of justice for their son. "No one has shown us any evidence that Ian had dealings with drugs", it said. "He was young, energetic and highly thought of by both sides of the community. What gives these cowards the right to murder in cold blood an innocent man?"