GARDAÍ targeting gangland groups in Limerick are on high alert as violent attacks increased around the city in recent weeks, including the latest attack, a firebombing of a car parked outside a family’s home this past Wednesday (February 12).
Gardaí said their investigations were ongoing into the attack, which investigators suspect was linked to a bitter feud between rival groups residing on the southside of Limerick City.
The firebomb attack occurred at Kilurray Court in Garryowen at around 1.30am on Wednesday.
Gardaí said they were “alerted to an incident of criminal damage by fire at a domestic residence”, noting that fortunately nobody was injured in the blaze.
Garda sources, who were fearful of further attacks, said that the feud was spreading at locations across the city environs as groups engaged in “tit for tat” violence.
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Armed Garda units have been stepped up and were performing nightly checkpoints and patrols in flashpoint areas including at Ballinacurra Weston, Southill, and parts of Garryowen.
The firebomb attack happened 48-hours after a pipe bomb, which failed to detonate, was thrown at the front entrance of a home at O’Malley Park on Monday night.
Gardaí appealed for “anyone who was in the O’Malley Park estate between 11pm and 11.45pm on Monday, or anyone with mobile phone or dashcam footage” to contact investigating Gardai at Roxboro Road Garda Station on 061 214 340.
Garda sources said they feared people, including children, could be seriously maimed or killed if the violent feuding continues.
In another similar attack, also being linked to the feud, a pipe bomb was thrown into the rear garden of a home on Hyde Road, Ballinacurra Weston, on February 2. The device exploded but no one was injured.
A further attack happened on January 23, when shots were fired at a male on Hyde Road, however he escaped injury.
It is understood that a number of the individuals involved in the feuding have close connections to the Dundon McCarthy crime group, which was responsible for a number of murders in the city.
Several people are before the courts charged with serious criminal offences that Gardaí suspect are connected with the current feuding.
A number of people have been targeted in stabbings, drive-by gun attacks, petrol bombings, and pipe bomb attacks as part of the same feud over the past year and half.
A number of individuals involved also have long-running links the sale and supply of drugs.
Gardaí warned that children have been in the immediate vicinity of a number of the violent attacks.
A Cork-based bomb disposal unit attached to the Defence Forces, which deals with the recovery of improvised explosive devices, has been deployed to Limerick to deal with a number of recent pipe bombs linked to the feuding.
