Father shot dead in Dublin gangland attack

A man shot dead in the second gangland-style gun attack in a day survived a similar attempt on his life last year.

A post-mortem examination will be carried out today on the body of Declan O'Reilly, whose life had been under threat for the last five years.

The 32-year-old was targeted near Griffith College on South Circular Road in Dublin at about 8pm yesterday. It is understood he was with his partner and child at the time.

O'Reilly was rushed to St James's Hospital where he was pronounced dead - about 12 hours after convicted criminal Gerard Eglington was gunned down in Portarlington, Co Laois.

While the men were from the same area, gardai are not linking the shootings and believe O'Reilly was murdered in retaliation for the death of a fellow inmate in Mountjoy Prison in September 2007.

A jury later acquitted him of stabbing Derek Glennon to death in the prison after he said Glennon had threatened and bullied him and forced him to hide drugs, mobile phones and weapons for him.

Gardai have appealed for information on a dark car seen leaving South Circular Road, while a dark car was later found burned out on O'Curry Avenue.

Earlier yesterday 27-year-old Eglington became the latest victim of the bloody Crumlin/Drimnagh feud, which has claimed almost 20 lives over the past decade.

Tension between the south Dublin criminal fractions is expected to spiral out of control after the shooting, which happened in front of a toddler and an 11-year-old in Kilnacourt Woods estate.

Eglington has several minor convictions but was regarded as being a senior member of a gang in Drimnagh, which is in a turf war with a rival drugs gang in neighbouring Crumlin.

A warrant was issued for his arrest within the last two weeks over a stabbing frenzy in a pub in Portarlington in August last year, and he was awaiting trial for violent disorder in a Dublin city pub in March last year.

His life has been under threat since the night when the brother and sister-in-law of "Fat" Freddie Thompson were viciously assaulted in the Karma Stone pub in Dublin's south inner city.

Eglington's first major brush with the law was at the age of 15 when, in April 2002, two gardai were killed on duty in a horror joyriding crash.

The teenager and then 17-year-old Raymond Dowdall stole a black Mazda MX5 after carrying out a burglary in south Dublin.

The speeding car, driven by Dowdall, crashed into the Garda car on the Stillorgan dual carriageway as Garda Anthony Tighe, 53, and Garda Michael Padden, 27 tried to warn other motorists.

Eglington was sentenced to four years in juvenile detention after pleading guilty to unlawfully taking possession of a vehicle and allowing himself to be carried in a stolen vehicle.

PA