GARDAI were last night continuing door to door inquiries in Dolphin's Barn, Dublin into the murder of Joseph Dwyer, who was beaten to death by a vigilante gang on Tuesday night.
Although a number of witnesses to the beating of the 41 year old drug addict and Aids victim were able to name members of the gang yesterday, as of last night no arrests had been made.
Dwyer died from internal injuries, with the fatal blow striking him on the left side of the chest, a post mortem determined yesterday. The blow appeared to have been struck with an implement, according to the post mortem.
Witnesses said that while Dwyer and a friend were beaten with sticks, baseball bats and iron bars, members of the gang - who were unmasked - cordoned off part of the laneway so that no one could intervene.
When the gang dispersed, a number of young women tried to help Dwyer, who was by then lying in a pool of blood. He shouted at them to keep away. He said "Keep away from me girls. I've got Aids. Don't touch me", one woman said.
According to residents, the vigilante group has been active recently and has sought to clear drug users and dealers from Dolphin's Barn a number of times, beating another man two weeks ago.
Both opposition and Government politicians said yesterday that while they condemned the vigilante's action, it arose from residents' frustration with the State's effort to deal with the drug problem.
"Unless the drugs crisis is put at the top of the political agenda, I fear we may see more people taking the law into their own hands," said Democratic Left TD, Mr Eric Byrne.
Dwyer went to Dolphin's Barn - an area where drugs are regularly sold on the streets in the evenings - at about 9.30 pm. on Tuesday. At the same time a group of about 15 men appeared and said they had come to "clear the `barn'."
Dwyer and a friend, 23 year old Alan Byrne, were pursued for about half a mile by the gang, from Dolphin's Barn towards their home in Basin Street.
Some people at the scene who knew Dwyer said yesterday that he was at worst a small time drug pusher, selling only to feed his own heroin habit. Others said he did not deal at all. Dwyer's brother James insisted Joseph had given up drug dealing after he received a four year sentence for it in the 1980s.
"Everyone knows he was not a drug dealer," he said.
He said his brother had full blown Aids and had only a short time to live.
There is speculation locally that members of the IRA are behind the vigilante group. One man shot in a city centre pub recently had received a letter purporting to come from the IRA warning that he had been seen dealing drugs.
In another instance, a man worried that he was being wrongly targeted by the vigilantes appealed to a local figure who he believed to be in the IRA, and from than they left him alone.