Feud-related killings have continued unabated in Limerick since the jailing of the McCarthy-Dundon gang, writes Conor Lally, Crime Correspondent.
As five members of the McCarthy-Dundon gang were led away from the Four Courts after their failed appeal against their convictions for the killing of Kieran Keane, gardaí were milling about outside.
Uniformed officers formed a cordon around two cellular prison vans in an effort to discourage any physical intervention by the killers' supporters.
Some female supporters had minutes earlier shouted "w**kers" at the judges when the verdict was announced. The men threw their paperwork towards the bench.
Outside, armed detectives wearing bullet-proof vests talked urgently into their radios to alert colleagues waiting outside in a convoy of vehicles that the prison vans carrying the men were ready to leave. The vans sped through the Four Courts gates on to the quays to a chorus of sirens at 10.12am, just 12 minutes after their brief court hearing began.
Two of them - Dessie Dundon and Anthony "Noddy" McCarthy - looked pale-faced and shocked by the verdict. But as they were brought into the open air their demeanour changed significantly.
They assumed an exaggerated upright gait and forced a smile. They stuck out their chests and slowed their walk considerably to look calm in case the long lenses of the photographs managed to sneak a picture of them looking under pressure.
Even as they marched back to the prison vans in chains to resume their life sentences they were desperate not to give their opponents any psychological advantage. It was a reminder, if one were needed, of the deep-rooted rivalries driving a murderous feud which has now claimed eight lives.
The other ingredient driving the feud is the men's female supporters. Many of them cannot pass each other in the streets of Limerick without becoming involved in a verbal or physical altercation, all of which is later relayed to their menfolk ensuring any lull in hostilities in short-lived.
Yesterday they could be seen - and heard - in the Four Courts. First they verbally abused the judges and then prison officers and gardaí as the men were led away. As the prison vans were driving out of the gates one young woman, sporting attire which revealed most of her fake-tanned torso, banged on the side of the vans shouting: "Go on, boys."
Kieran Keane was tied up by the same "boys", stabbed in the ear six times and shot once in the back of the head on a remote roadway in Drombana, Co Limerick, late on the night of January 29th, 2003.
His nephew, Owen Treacy, was stabbed 17 times in the ear, neck and chest in the same attack. He told the murder trial in December 2003 that one of the attackers, David "Frog Eyes" Stanners, said to him: "This is the last face you're ever going to see."
He then heard Noddy McCarthy saying: "Come on, come on, he's dead."
But Treacy survived and it was his testimony that would later put the men away for life.
Since then there have been six more feud-related murders in Limerick. The McCarthy-Dundon gang is implicated in two of those killings as well as two other non-feud related murders.
Michael Campbell McNamara (23), Southill, was lured to his death on the promise of buying an automatic gun for €700 in October 2003. Aligned to the Keane gang, he was shot twice and stabbed 10 times in the back and chest in an execution-style killing in Barry's Field, Rathbane.
Last April Noel Campion (34), Pineview Gardens, Moyross, was shot dead in Limerick city as he travelled to a court appearance on the back of a friend's motorbike.
He was a drug dealer who was closely linked to the Dundon-McCarthy gang. However, it is believed Campion was shot by his own associates because he was becoming a serious rival.
The McCarthy-Dundon gang was also behind another recent non-feud related high-profile gangland killing in Limerick, details of which cannot be disclosed for legal reasons.
Its members have also been implicated in the planning of the contract killing last November in Dublin of Latvian mother of two Baiba Saulite.
Many Limerick criminals were jailed for short periods for a variety of offences committed in early 2003 when the feud erupted in earnest. With a large number of these having been released or now due for release, the city's gangland scene seems primed for more bloodletting.