Ireland

Brother of murdered Real IRA boss Alan Ryan shot in Dublin

Vincent 'Vinny' Ryan was shot as he sat in a parked car in a street in Finglas in north Dublin. Picture by Brian Lawless/PA Wire
Vincent 'Vinny' Ryan was shot as he sat in a parked car in a street in Finglas in north Dublin. Picture by Brian Lawless/PA Wire Vincent 'Vinny' Ryan was shot as he sat in a parked car in a street in Finglas in north Dublin. Picture by Brian Lawless/PA Wire

A brother of murdered Real IRA boss Alan Ryan has been shot in Dublin, just months after he was seriously injured in a knife attack.

Vincent Ryan, known as Vinny, was targeted in a car parked on McKee Road in the Finglas area of north Dublin shortly after 3pm yesterday.

He was sitting in the driver's seat of a Volkswagen Golf when a car pulled up alongside and a man fired several shots, hitting him in the neck, before speeding off.

He was rushed to hospital to undergo emergency surgery and was last night fighting for his life.

It is the latest gun attack in the capital, after a gangland feud claimed the lives of two people so far this year.

In October the father-of-one was treated for serious face and throat injures after being attacked with a knife as he walked through the centre of Dublin.

The 25-year-old has been under threat for several years both from criminal gangs and rival dissident republicans.

He is the younger brother of Alan Ryan (32), who was shot in 2012 by a criminal gang.

Following the murder a number of people were killed in a spate of revenge attacks, among them west Belfast man Deccy Smith who had fled Northern Ireland in 2007 following the brutal double murder of republicans Joe Jones and Eddie Burns.

He was wanted by the PSNI in connection with the attacks, which saw Mr Burns shot dead in west Belfast and Mr Jones beaten to death in north Belfast on the same night.

Smith had settled in the capital and was a one-time friend of Alan Ryan, and tried to take control of the Real IRA following the dissident leader's murder.

He himself was shot dead outside a crèche on the Holywell Avenue in Donaghmede in March 2014.

In 2013, Vinny Ryan and associate Darragh Evans were cleared by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on charges of possession of an assault rifle and a handgun on September 15 2011 - the same day criminal Michael 'Micka' Kelly was shot dead.

Kelly was said to have been involved in a stand-off with Alan Ryan prior to his death after he refused to hand over cash to the Real IRA.

However, a non-jury court ruled that there was 'insufficient evidential basis' to convict the pair.

Following the stabbing last year a group calling itself the Real IRA said they would retaliate for any further attack on the Ryan family.