Opinion

Gardai under pressure to halt gangland killings

As the upsurge in murderous violence in Dublin continues, pressure is growing on the Garda to stop the killing and bring the gun gangs to justice.

No one doubts the enormity of the problem facing police in the city.

Gunmen seem able to strike where they want, in broad daylight even, and to get clean away.

Strabane man Mickey Barr, shot dead in a bar near Croke Park on Monday night, is just the latest victim in what is an increasingly bloody feud between the Kinahan and Hutch crime gangs.

The 35-year-old had served time in Portlaoise prison and was acquitted of IRA membership along with six other men last year.

Earlier this week the republican group known as the `IRA' said Mr Barr was a member of their organisation but was not involved in the feud.

The group also said the guns used in the Regency Hotel attack in February, during which David Byrne from the Kinahan gang was shot dead, ``were not IRA weapons''.

However, Mr Barr is believed to have been friendly with a fellow Strabane man who is a key suspect in the Regency attack and whose home has been raided by the PSNI.

Any suggestion of a link between dissident republicans and the heavily armed Kinahan-Hutch criminal gangs would be viewed as a deeply sinister development.

With six people already dead as a result of this feud, it is vital the lawful authorities make urgent progress in apprehending those responsible and making it as difficult as possible for the killers to strike again.

These are tense times in Dublin and the fear - entirely justified given the circumstances - is that more lives will be lost.

On the same night that Mickey Barr was murdered, Thomas Farnan was shot dead in Clondalkin.

While this killing is not being linked to the gangland feud, it is yet another disturbing sign of the growing gun violence in the Republic.