A murder investigation has been launched after a man's body was found on the side of a lonely roadway in north Co Dublin yesterday.
The 29-year old man, from Dublin's inner city, was identified late last night and his relatives were being informed of his death.
The body was found at lunchtime yesterday by American tourists who were driving along a back road out of Dublin airport.
They immediately contacted gardaí at Ballymun station and an investigation into the death was started.
The dead man was lying on the side of the road about 1½ miles from the towers in Ballymun on St Margaret's Road, not far from Miscarries stores.
Last night a team of detectives from Finglas Garda station under the direction of Insp Brian Sherry were combing the area for clues.
He said the victim had been shot in the head with a single blast from a shotgun and his body dumped where it had been found.
"We now understand the body could have been there for anything from 12 to 24 hours," he said.
Confirming that a murder investigation was now underway, he said the victim had been known to the Garda and was a resident of Dublin's inner city.
"We are not following any definite line of inquiry. We are ruling nothing out," he said when asked if the investigation was a gangland killing.
He appealed to the public for information and asked anyone who had used the road on Saturday night/Sunday morning, to make contact with Finglas Garda station (01-6667500).
As darkness fell last night a quarter mile of the roadway on which the body was dumped was sealed off and forensic teams were attempting to determine if the victim had been killed where he was found or if his body had been dumped there. The remains were left in position as a Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance waited to take them from the scene when the initial investigation was completed.
The area where the body was dumped is very isolated despite its proximity to Ballymun. It is bounded on one side by playing fields and undeveloped open space on the other.
The scene is close to the perimeter of Dublin Airport and the nearest residents to the scene live in an itinerant settlement about a quarter of a mile away.
The Garda Press Office confirmed that following an initial examination at the scene, a post-mortem on the remains will be carried out in the City Morgue later today.