Shocked local people in Firhouse in southwest Dublin were yesterday trying to come to terms with a double murder in their midst following the assassination-style killing of two men on Sunday night.
Residents woke to the news that a cul-de-sac in the Carrigwood estate, a mature middle-class suburb at the foot of the Dublin mountains, had become the centre of a gangland feud on Sunday night. Two men had been shot dead.
Passers-by stopped to look down the cordoned off cul-de-sac of semi-detached houses where the victims' car, covered by a tent, was being examined by a team from the Garda Technical Bureau and by assistant State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis.
The crime scene backs on to a well-maintained green space and, a primary school, Scoil Treasa, is located less than 200 yards away.
Local resident Trudy McKenna said she felt sick at the thought of such a murder taking place in the estate.
"This is a 35-year-old estate and nothing has ever happened in our area before. It looks like the men got trapped, it's a terrible thing to think about," she said.
"Nowadays it can happen anywhere, even Foxrock."
A second woman, pushing a buggy past the scene, said she was shocked that a murder could happen there.
"This is normally a very quiet area, there's never any trouble, I can't believe it," she said.
"People say don't worry about it, they're just killing each other," a local man said.
"But those men that did the killings would probably kill anyone."
He added: "They would probably break your legs if somebody paid them to. They didn't even care if there was anyone around to see them."
In an adjacent cul -desac a resident unloading shopping from her car said that neighbours had heard the shots but thought they were Halloween bangers.
"We never expected anything like this to happen here," she said.
"I'm just thanking God it wasn't in this cul-de-sac. I wouldn't want my children to come out and see that.
"I tried not to tell them, but they heard people talking about it on the way to school.
"I suppose you can't keep it hidden," she said.
A Garda helicopter buzzed in the grey sky above the scene taking photographs of the area before flying on to Glenvara Park, where the burned-out getaway car was abandoned in another cul-de-sac.
The shell of the silver BMW 5-series car used by the killers was found next to a green space at the end of the road.
