DRAMATIC PICS | 

Armed gardai seize motorbikes and scramblers during early-morning raids in Limerick

A number of shootings and a pipe bomb blast have occurred in the area over recent weeks and months

Today at 17:15

These dramatic pictures show an early-morning Garda raid on an area close to the Hyde Road in Limerick City where a number of shootings and a pipe bomb blast have occurred recently.

In our exclusive pictures, gardaí, backed up by members of the Emergency Response Unit, can be seen confiscating a number of motorcycles and at least one four-wheeled vehicle.

There was a massive Garda presence in the area with marked cars and vans backed up along a main road as officers moved in.

The armed gardai, masked and in boiler suits, can be seen monitoring the area carefully as officers take possession of the scramblers.

A number of local people can also be seen standing in doorways watching the activity.

This latest operation takes place in the same area where a house in Limerick City was targeted as part of an escalation in a “tit for tat” feud involving local criminals.

A garda spokesman said gardaí in Limerick were probing “the discharge of a firearm at Hyde Avenue” in the early hours of the morning of October 12.

The shooting took place around 1am and there was some minor damage to the house.

No-one was injured and no arrests were made. The spokesman added that the investigation into the incident was “ongoing”.

A number of shootings and a pipe bomb blast have occurred in the area over recent weeks and months.

It is understood that two local drugs gangs, comprising of teenagers, are involved in the feud, which is already drawing “tentative” comparisons to the McCarthy/Dundon feud, which began in the year 2000.

We reported recently how the home of Limerick gangland figure Jimmy Collins was targeted in a gun attack last week, while unfounded allegations were made against innocent family members of the Collins clan.

The clash has been sparked by tensions between two low-level drug dealers in the area and Collins’ son-in-law, Thomas O’Neill.

O’Neill, who is married to April Collins, has a long track record of violence and hit the headlines in 2004 as a 16-year-old when convicted of an horrific gang rape in the Cratloe Woods, Co. Clare.

While no-one was injured in the shooting, a Sunday World source warned “things could get messy”.

The suspected drug-dealers believed to have been involved in the gun attack are said to be supplied by the gangland faction controlled by Eds McCarthy, a relative of the Dundon brothers.

Sources say that, along with his brother ‘Fat’ John McCarthy, the gang is considered one of the strongest operating in the city.

April Collins previously gave evidence against John and Wayne, the brothers of her ex-partner Ger Dundon, who were both convicted of murder and jailed for life.

O’Neill is known to have several enemies and has been in conflict with other criminals while serving time for various offences.

The shooting at Hyde Road is latest in a series of incidents in the area this year involving gun attacks and pipe bombs.

The previous week, shots were fired at a house in O’Malley Park while in July a man was injured when a pipe bomb exploded on Hyde Road, damaging two houses.

A month earlier, a shot was fired near a group of people on Hyde Road in a daylight drive-by shooting and in May there was another gun attack on the road.

In August, while carrying out a search of April Collins’s family home on Hyde Road, bullet holes were discovered in a wall, but it is not clear when this happened.

Senior gang leaders have so far kept a lid on feud violence in the city, which has proven bad for business for the drugs gangs.

The last significant murder attempt connected with the feud took place in 2016 when Christy Keane was shot four times.

Rival boss ‘Red’ Larry McCarthy last week pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court to his part in the murder attempt by supplying a car used by the gunmen.

The Sunday World recently revealed how senior members of rival gangs were able to deal with the same group of illicit businessmen to launder their drugs money.

Jimmy Collins Snr hit the headlines during Limerick’s lethal underworld feud when he posed for a photograph showing off his gangland tattoos.

Despite his hardman image, he narrowly escaped jail in 2009 when convicted of stealing sausage rolls from a shop.

However, he was later convicted and jailed for seven-and-a-half years for his role in an attempt to extort €80,000 from nightclub promoter Mark Heffernan in a two-year campaign of intimidation.

Originally allied to the McCarthy-Dundon faction, members of the Collins family played a key role in bringing down the Dundon brothers and bringing an end to the feud violence.

The change in loyalty began after Ger Dundon reacted violently to April Collins ending their relationship while in prison. She left him for Thomas O’Neill who she has married.

She gave evidence against Wayne and John Dundon who were convicted of respectively ordering the murders of Roy Collins Jr and Shane Geoghegan, both innocent men with no connection to crime.

She told the Special Criminal Court of witnessing John Dundon ordering the hit on gang rival John McNamara less than 48 hours before Shane Geoghegan’s death.

She testified that on the night of the murder, she had heard John Dundon order Doyle to kill McNamara, who lived near Mr Geoghegan.

She also gave evidence against gang boss Wayne Dundon, who was jailed for life for the 2009 murder of innocent businessman Roy Collins.