1980s and 1990s - Eddie Ryan Snr (41), works with the Keane brothers, Christy (42) and Kieran (36), to build up a significant drugs empire in Limerick.
In the mid-1990s, Eddie Ryan falls out with the Keanes, mainly because he resents the fact they are making more money than he is. Ryan decides to go his own way and begins dealing drugs, in competition with the Keanes.
1998 - After a period the relationship between Ryan and the Keanes deteriorates further. Two girls, one from each family, become involved in a schoolyard fight.
November 2000 - Eddie Ryan Snr tries to shoot Christy Keane. The gun
jams and Keane escapes with his life. Days later Ryan is
shot dead as he sits in a Limerick pub. Kieran Keane was the chief suspect in that murder.
August 2001 - Christy Keane is caught by gardaí with €240,000 worth of cannabis. He is later sentenced to 10 years in prison.
March 2002 - Kieran Ryan (19) allegedly stabs Liam Keane (19). Ryan is the son of Eddie Ryan Snr, Keane the son of Christy Keane.
January 23rd, 2003 - Keane fails to identify Ryan and the case collapses. Just hours after the case Kieran Ryan and his brother, Eddie Ryan Jnr (20), are allegedly abducted at gun point. Their friend, Christopher Costelloe (20), escapes the scene. He is one of the men convicted of Kieran Keane's murder.
January 27th - The Ryans mother, Mary, appeals for the return of her sons. She says she believes Kieran Keane is behind the abduction.
January 28th - Kieran Keane and his nephew, Owen Treacy (31), are abducted by the group of five men convicted on Saturday. They are driven to the townland of Drombana outside Limerick. Just before 10 p.m. Keane is shot in the head and Treacy stabbed 17 times. Treacy survives.
January 29th - Just hours after Keane's murder, the Ryan brothers turn up safe and well in Portlaoise. They refuse to say where they have been kept, saying they were "warned to say nothing". Gardaí keep an open mind on whether the pair were abducted.
March 2003 - Five men arrested and charged with the abduction and murder of Keane and the abduction and attempted murder of Treacy.
July 7th - John Ryan (47), brother of Eddie Ryan Jnr, shot dead at a house in Limerick.
October 19th - In a suspected revenge attack, Michael Campbell-McNamara (23), is shot dead on the south side of Limerick city.
November 2nd - Liam Keane appears in court charged with the 2001 murder of Limerick man Eric Leamy (21). He is told he is free to go after key witnesses suffer "collective amnesia".
November 2003 - The trial of the five men accused of killing Kieran Keane is due to go ahead in Limerick. However, following difficulties with raising a jury it is switched to Dublin, first to the court house at Cloverhill prison, and then to the Four Courts.
December 20th - After a six-week trial the five men are convicted on all four charges. They are sentenced to life in prison for Keane's murder and will be sentenced on the other three indictments in Limerick in February. ... By Conor Lally