Seven people have been arrested this morning by gardaí investigating the murder of convicted criminal Stephen Byrne in Dublin last summer.
Byrne (32) was shot dead at about 4.40pm on July 13th last at the junction of St Laurence Place East and Sheriff Street in Dublin’s north inner city.
Byrne lived at Mariner’s Port, just yards from where he was killed.
On the day he was murdered, Byrne received a phone call while in his house and went out to meet somebody on the street.
As he was talking to a group of people, a gunman approached on a mountain bike, shooting Byrne in the head and chest. Those talking to Byrne fled as the gunman moved in.
The killer, who used a handgun, then escaped on the bike.
Five men and two women were arrested in relation to his death in the north inner city this morning.
Four of the men - two aged in their 20s, one in his 30s, and one in his 50s - have been detained under Section 30 of the Offences against the State Act, 1939.
A teenager is being held under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2007.
Two women - in their late 20s and early 30s – are also detained under Section 30 of the Offences against the State Act, 1939.
Six other people have been arrested for questioning and released in connection with Byrne's murder since last summer.
Gardaí believe he was killed as part of a gangland feud between rival factions around Sheriff Street that has cost at least five lives since 2006.
Two of the other victims of the feud were cousins of Byrne. Gerard Batt Byrne (25) was shot in 2006 while Aiden Byrne (32) was shot in February.
The factions were once all members of the same gang. It split when its former leader was accused, and later convicted, of raping a woman over a sustained period from when she was a child.