Man held over Ryan funeral shots

Gardaí have arrested a man in connection with the firing of shots over the coffin of murdered Real IRA member Alan Ryan in Dublin.

A volley of rounds were fired over the 32-year-old’s coffin outside his home on Grange Abbey Drive, Donaghmede, Dublin 13 before his funeral on September 8th.

The volley of shots and the appearance of the colour guard in paramilitary clothing outside the funeral Mass represented the most significant public show of strength by the Real IRA in the Republic and has been interpreted in political and policing circles as a serious and deliberate challenge to the agencies of the State.

Gardaí staged a significant search and arrest operation in the week after the funeral as part of an investigation - codenamed Operation Ambience – into the firing of the shots.  More than 30 residential dwellings and commercial premises in Dublin, Kildare and Meath were searched and 17 people were arrested.

A man in his 30s was arrested last night. He is being held at Raheny Garda Station under Section 30 of the Offences against the State Act, 1939.

Ryan had served time in prison for firearms offences linked to his membership of the Real IRA. In recent years he had emerged as a key player in the organisation in Dublin, fundraising by extorting publicans and drug gangs.

Gardaí believe he was shot on the afternoon of September 3rd at Grange Lodge Avenue, Clongriffin, north Dublin, by one of the Dublin organised crime gangs with whom he had come into conflict.

Two men have been charged with withholding information in relation to the gun attack.