In the wake of the fatal shooting at the Regency Hotel, the criminal links of the young man shot dead and those who targeted him have focused attention on the Dublin communities they come from.
David Byrne, the 34-year-old man shot dead at the north Dublin hotel, was from the Crumlin area of the city and was said to have close links with an international gang apparently led by Christy Kinahan, from the south-inner city.
A feud between rival gang factions in the Crumlin and Drimnagh areas of Dublin South-Central led to the deaths of 15 young men in the decade after 2001.
TDs in the area say the issue has not been coming up on the doorstep, but people know who the criminals and their families are.
‘Habitual professional criminals’
Labour TD Eric Byrne said there were a number of families from the area who have been “long-term habitual professional criminals”. But he said they represented a tiny fraction of the community.
Mr Byrne said criminal gangs “live in some sort of subterranean and murky world”, but on a day-to-day basis they live quietly.
They were not out on the streets causing trouble and would not cause trouble for their neighbours or want them to see them as “gurriers”. He said “the last thing they would want is to have their neighbours spying on them”.
He cited the criminal known as the “Viper” and said he “had a policeman living opposite him for years”.
The Dublin South-Central TD said: “I have had [their] family members come to my clinics and I treat them the same as anyone else.”
He said Sinn Féin wanted to abolish the Special Criminal Court but he believed its role should be increased for the protection of the population, adding that Taoiseach Enda Kenny had expressed a similar view.
Independent TD Joan Collins said people were talking about the shooting but it was not coming up as a crime issue on the canvass, even though people knew those being reported as involved and their families.
The families involved “have been in the area for a very long time and the guards know who they are and should be doing their job”.
‘Decent community’
She said the Crumlin area is a “decent community and obviously people don’t like this kind of behaviour. But everyone knows that gangs are in this area and every other area. It could have happened anywhere.”
Fine Gael TD Catherine Byrne said she had received no calls about the issue. People did not have the right to take the law into their own hands she said, and “shoot up a place”.
Ms Byrne did not want to say any more about the issue because, no matter the background, “somebody’s son is dead, and people are grieving”.
