GARDA PATROLS backed by the Emergency Response Unit are being stepped up in west Dublin amid fears that the double murder of the Corbally brothers on Monday night will lead a protracted gun feud.
A similar high-visibility policing operation to that introduced in Coolock, north Dublin, at the start of the year, following a number of murders in that area, is now being rolled out in Ballyfermot, west Dublin, where the murdered brothers were from.
The Garda believe the Corballys were shot dead by a rival drug gang from the Ballyfermot area and are now fearful of revenge gun attacks.
The policing operation being introduced will consist of rolling Garda checkpoints manned by uniformed gardaí supported by members of the Emergency Response Unit.
Members of the two gangs involved in the feud that claimed the lives of the Corballys are also being put under closer surveillance. The Garda helicopter will also fly much more regularly over Ballyfermot, checking for unusual vehicle movements.
Garda sources said the checkpoints, during which motorists will be spoken to by gardaí and some cars will be searched, will frustrate gangs in moving guns and drugs around. The other measures would offer reassurance to the public that the gangs were being met head-on.
Kenneth (32) and Paul (35) Corbally were gunned down as they sat in their car on Neilstown Road, Clondalkin, west Dublin, at 8pm on Monday. A 14-year-old boy who was sitting in the back of the car at the time was wounded in the arm and upper body and is recovering in hospital. Gardaí have already spoken to his family about their security amid concerns they may be threatened by those behind the killing not to let their son give any information about the double murder to gardaí.
The Corbally faction and the rival grouping have been in direct competition in the west Dublin drug trade.
Last year, tensions erupted into a major gang brawl outside a pub in which one man died. Earlier this year, the Corbally faction stabbed one of the rival gang, who survived the attack.
Just weeks ago, the Corbally faction tried to kill a leading member of the rival gang but he managed to flee uninjured.
Garda sources said detectives in west Dublin were aware of plans being made by both factions to kill their rivals. The Corbally brothers, originally from Drumfinn Avenue, Ballyfermot, were warned by gardaí several times that their lives were in danger.
Senior gardaí now fear that the killing of both brothers on Monday night by two gunmen, who used machine-gun-style weapons, will tip what was an increasingly violent row into a gangland gun feud.