A man and woman have been arrested by gardaí investigating the murder of a close associate of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch in Dublin last December.
Noel Kirwan was fatally wounded as he sat in his car with his partner in the St Ronan’s Drive estate in Ronanstown at about 5.10pm on December 22nd.
A man approached the car and fired a number of shots into the vehicle before making his getaway in a white Peugeot Partner van which was later found burned out. A gun was also discovered by gardaí.
The attack was one of a series of killings in the Kinahan-Hutch feud, a feature of which has been the targeting of friends of the Hutch family or members of the family who are not involved in organised crime. The feud between the groups has to date been linked to the deaths of 11 people.
Detained
On Tuesday, gardaí said a man and a woman, both in their 20s, were being detained in connection with the incident. They were arrested in north Co Dublin and are being held at Garda stations in Lucan and Blanchardstown under the provisions of Section 50 of the criminal Justice Act 2007.
Kirwan, who was originally from Sean O’Casey Avenue in Dublin’s north inner city, had been known to the Garda when he was a younger man, but was not believed to be an active player in gangland crime in recent years. He was close to the Hutch family, having grown up with Gerry Hutch, and gardaí were, at the time of his killing, of the view that this was the motive.