GARDAÍ HAVE launched a murder inquiry following the shooting dead of a man in a gangland-style attack on a halting site in Ballymun, Dublin, over the weekend.
The victim, 49-year-old Tom McDonagh, was ambushed at his mobile home on the northside of the city on Saturday night by at least two men, one of whom fired between 15 and 20 shots from a semi-automatic pistol.
Mr McDonagh was known to the gardaí but not for serious criminality. However, detectives are investigating the possibility that he owed money to a criminal gang.
Gardaí said the attack appeared well planned and that there was no doubt Mr McDonagh, a married man with three children, was the intended target.
The killers struck just before 10pm when the deceased was alone in the mobile home where he lived on the St Margaret’s halting site off St Margaret’s Road near the Ikea store in Ballymun.
The dead man’s wife was away for the weekend and his three adult children, one of whom lives in the caravan next to Mr McDonagh’s, were not at their parents’ home when the attack occurred.
The two attackers drove into the back of the cul de sac site of about 60 caravans.
They reversed their car into Mr McDonagh’s bay, got out of the vehicle and went to the victim’s mobile home where they opened fire through the front door after knocking on it to get their target to come to the door.
At least one of the attackers is then believed to have gone into the caravan and shot the victim again to make sure he was dead.
Mr McDonagh was wounded several times in the stomach. A postmortem on his remains was not due to take place until this morning.
After the shooting the gunman was driven from the scene by his accomplice.
Their vehicle went back out onto St Margaret’s Road and turned left towards Finglas.
About one kilometre up the road they turned right into the Mayeston Lawn apartment block, parked their stolen black Nissan Qashqai in a parking bay and set it on fire.
The men then ran through bushes beside the apartment block and scaled a fence, which brought them on to the side of the southbound carriage of the M50.
Gardaí believe it was at this spot, about 200m before the exit for Finglas, that the attackers were collected and driven from the area.
Children living on the St Margaret’s halting site looked on yesterday as members of the Garda technical bureau placed number signs over bullet shells left by the high-powered weapon and that littered the ground outside the caravan. Bullet holes on the exterior walls of the caravan were clearly visible.
Garda sources said tensions were running high on the site after the shooting, with a group of men drinking at a bonfire until first light yesterday as gardaí guarded the crime scene.
Supt John Gilligan said gardaí at Ballymun Garda station wanted to speak to anybody who was on the halting site between 9.45pm and 10pm on Saturday.
Gardaí were also anxious to speak to any residents who may have seen the killers setting their vehicle on fire at the Mayeston apartments or driving from St Margaret’s Road into the parking bay at the apartment block.
Supt Gilligan said motorists travelling southbound on the M50 at about 10pm on Saturday may have seen the attackers climbing over the fence onto the side of the road and being driven away.
“It’s highly unusual to see any pedestrian activity on the M50 so people may remember seeing these men,” he said.
“This is a horrific incident to take place in an otherwise quiet halting site.”
Immediately after the shooting Mr McDonagh was taken by ambulance to the Mater hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time after arriving.
His mobile home and the bay in which it is situated were sealed off yesterday and were undergoing an examination by members of the Garda technical bureau.