LONDON - The gangland killing of a prominent Dublin crime boss on Tuesday marked the latest escalation in an underworld war involving drug dealers, disaffected Irish Republicans and contract killers.
The Irish police, the Garda SÃochána, were questioning on Wednesday a man reported to be linked to the dissident Republican movement after Eamon Kelly, a 65-year-old career criminal, was shot dead outside his Dublin home by a lone gunman.
The murder of a man referred to by the Dublin press as “The Godfather†was the 15th gang-related killing this year.
The Irish broadcaster RTE said detectives believed the latest murder was linked to tensions between dissident Republicans and criminal gangs, which led to the murder of a member of the so-called Real I.R.A. three months ago.
A wave of killings over recent years has been linked to conflict over the proceeds of the illegal drug trade. The gangland phenomenon has even spawned a popular television drama series, Love/Hate, which began its third season in November.
The Irish Independent wrote at the time that the real-life gangland story was starker than the fiction. Martin Callinan, the head of the Irish police, told the newspaper that Ireland hosted 25 organized crime gangs, whose bosses were forging links with Russian mobsters.
Recent killings have been linked to a war between drug gangs and disaffected elements of the Irish Republican Army who rejected the peace process in Northern Ireland that ended three decades of violence in the British-ruled province.
The Real I.R.A., banned in Britain and the Irish Republic and regarded by the United States as a terrorist organization, has carried out bomb and gun attacks on both sides of the Irish border in the past decade, ostensibly in support of its campaign for a united Ireland.
In the Irish Republic, however, the dissidents are now regarded as just another criminal gang, bent on extorting the drug profits of crime bosses in Dublin and other cities.
The Real I.R.A. this year linked up with a Northern Ireland vigilante group - Republican Action Against Drugs - which has been behind a campaign of shootings and forcible exile of teenagers and men accused of involvement in drug dealing in the northern city of Derry.
“They have persuaded some parents to hand over their children - some as young as 18 - to be shot by appointment in a non-lethal way to spare them more serious injuries,†the BBC reported.
The alliance was proclaimed as part of a politically inspired unity effort among dissidents to strengthen the armed struggle against the British presence in the province. However, the Derry vigilantes have been branded by Northern Ireland police as vicious thugs who are running their own extortion rackets linked to their self-proclaimed war on drugs.
South of the border in September, Alan Ryan, a murdered member of the Real I.R.A. linked to the Dublin drug war, was buried at a ceremony in which masked mourners in paramilitary uniform put on what was the dissidents' biggest show of strength to date in the Irish Republic.
Mr. Ryan was described at the graveside as “a brave Irish republican and fearless I.R.A. volunteer.â€
Irish police, however, believe he was himself directly responsible for two murders and was involved in extorting drug gangs in Dublin as well as innocent pub owners, according to The Belfast Telegraph.
“Sources say that a north Dublin drugs gang hired a professional assassin to kill Ryan after he robbed them of a large amount of cash earlier this summer,†the newspaper wrote.
The favored theory in Tuesday's murder of Eamon Kelly is that it was revenge for the Ryan killing.
