Conor Lally talks to the family of the two missing men about the feud thought to lie behind their abduction.
The mother of two young men kidnapped in Limerick on Thursday said last night she believed her children were dead.
Asked if she believed they were alive, she said: "No, but we are just hoping they are. I want them back alive, but if they are not, I still want my children back."
Mrs Mary Ryan appealed to her sons' abductors to return them safely. However, she conceded that hope of 19-year old Kieran's and 20-year old Eddie's safe return had faded as the hours have passed since their abduction at gunpoint in Ballynanty, Limerick City, on Thursday evening.
Mrs Ryan, who has two other children aged 12 and two, believes she knows the identity of those behind the double abduction. She says her family's feud with two other families from an estate in north Limerick was the motive for Thursday's events.
"They either did it or are behind it," she said. "They killed my husband and walked free and now they have taken my two boys".
Mrs Ryan's husband, Eddie Ryan snr, was killed in a gun attack at the Moose Bar in Limerick City in November 2000. Gardaí launched a major murder investigation after Mr Ryan was gunned down.
However, despite a number of arrests after the killing, and charges having been brought against one 24-year-old man, no convictions were secured.
Mrs Ryan said yesterday two other north Limerick families wanted her sons dead "because they are trying to take over the city. They are trying to do it with their guns and their workers, and they are being let do it. I never wanted bloodshed. The guards told my boys to hold back and they did. I am not frightened of them; but they came in groups. . .my boys are only babies, children".
Speaking to local radio station Live 95FM yesterday she addressed her sons directly: "I love you boys, I would die for you".
Everyone in the Ryan family has been looking over their shoulders since Mr Ryan snr was killed just over two years ago, Mrs Ryan said.
One member of the family who spoke to The Irish Times at the Ryan family home at Kileely yesterday said she did not want her name published for fear of reprisals.
"We are all afraid they are going to come after us next. This has just devastated us, it has gone way too far. We are all shattered by it all."
Like the Ryan family, many locals believe the events of last Thursday are linked to a feud between the Ryans and two other families who live about one mile away in north Limerick.
In the mid-1990s Mr Ryan snr, who was known to the gardaí, was an associate of a senior member of one of the two rival families.
The two men grew apart; but in the early stages the parting, while not exactly amicable, was not marked by violence.
However, there followed a number of low-key incidents between younger members of the families which, in recent years, have escalated out of control.
One incident is believed to have involved two younger members of the families having become involved in a row in a schoolyard four years ago. When older members of the families heard of the row they began feuding.
There followed a number of gun and petrol bomb attacks against the homes of some of the main figures in the families.
The Ryans are convinced Mr Ryan Snr's murder was linked to that feud. And they are convinced the abduction of his two sons last week is yet another chapter in the long-running and violent battle.