THERE HAS BEEN condemnation following the death of a man described as one of the most senior figures in organised crime in Ireland earlier today.
Eamon Kelly, 65, was shot as he was walking on Furry Park Road in Killester, near Clontarf shortly after 4pm this evening before he later died in hospital.
A man in his 30s was arrested at the scene and remains in garda custody tonight, a garda spokesperson has said.
Gardaí also say that they would particularly like to talk to anyone who was in the Furry Park Road area between 2pm and 4.30pm this afternoon.
A black Lexus car with a registration 96-D-27994 was found partially burnt out at Stiles Court in Clontarf, which is a cul de sac at the rear of Clontarf Cricket/Rugby Club.
They would like to talk to anyone who may have noticed this car in Killester, on the Howth Road or at Castle Avenue and the surrounding areas today, urging people to contact them on 01 666 4800.
The shooting was condemned by Dublin Bay North TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin who said on Twitter that he was “disgusted by today’s fatal shooting in Killester”.
“There can never be any justification for such a disgusting action,” he said.
The death of Kelly is likely linked to tension between a number of criminal gangs in the Dublin city with investigators probing one possible line of inquiry that this shooting is linked to the murder of Alan Ryan in September, RTÉ’s Paul Reynolds reported this evening.
Kelly had several previous criminal convictions including for trafficking cocaine in the 1990s.
He was also involved in some of the biggest bank heists in the 1990s and was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 1993 after being caught with cocaine with an estimated street value of €500,000.
In a profile by the Sunday World newspaper, Kelly was said to have acted as a mentor to Eamon Dunne aka ‘The Don’ who was shot dead at the Fassaugh House pub in Cabra in April 2010.
Kelly himself was subject to a previous attempt on his life just months after Dunne’s death when he was targeted on the same road where he was fatally shot today.
In that incident in September 2010 Kelly had a gun pointed at his head but the weapon jammed and the panicked gunman ran away.
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