The man who was shot dead in Dublin on Tuesday night was widowed shortly before Christmas and is survived by a 14-year-old daughter.
Mr Raymond Salinger (40), was shot as he drank with friends in Farrell's pub on New Street, in the south inner-city area, between 9.45 and 9.50 p.m.
He was drinking a pint of beer at the bar and watching the Leeds v Chelsea soccer match. At about 9.45 p.m. two men walked calmly in wearing balaclavas. One, described as 5 ft 8 in and wearing a cream top and black jeans, carried a hand gun.
According to Supt Edward Quirke of Kevin Street Garda station, this man "singled out Mr Salinger who was standing at the counter and discharged a number of shots which hit him in the chest".
Witnesses said he tried to get up but his assailants shot him again before leaving. Some of the customer tried to help Mr Salinger before the emergency services arrived. He was taken by ambulance to St James's hospital where he was pronounced dead at 10.28 p.m.
Friends of Mr Salinger, who did not wish to be named, said yesterday he had recently returned from England and was working on building sites around Dublin.
"He was a good family man and was just trying to work for his daughter," said one woman, a friend of the Salinger family and living near the scene of Tuesday's shooting. "It hit her very bad when her mam died. Sacred Heart, God knows how the little one will cope with this." Supt Quirke said yesterday he thought she was staying with relatives.
Another young woman, living in a flats complex off Aungier Street, who was in the pub at the time, was unwilling to speak about the incident.
Her father, however, who went to pick her up immediately after the shooting, said the pub had been "quite busy" with about 40 people there.
"People were very shook up. There was an ambulance and guards and just chaos. But that's just the way Dublin has gone now though."
Supt Quirke said his team was "following a definite line of inquiry" and was conducting house to house inquiries in the New Street/Clanbrassil Street area as well as interviewing everyone who was in the pub at the time. Mr Salinger was known to the gardaí, he added.
He was known to be involved in the drugs trade.
One theory gardaí are investigating is that some might have believed he played a part in the successful seizure of over €100,000 worth of cocaine by gardaí in Dublin's north inner city last week. Another is that he may have been involved in bringing heroin in from Britain.
Another customer in the pub, who also did not want to be named, said Mr Salinger had become "a regular in the past few months", adding that "no one knew" he had any connection with the drugs trade.
"That was a complete shock to me when I heard it," he said.
Supt Quirke appealed to anyone with any information to contact Kevin Street on (01) 666 9400 or any Garda station.
