Three men have suffered gunshot wounds in unrelated attacks in Dublin and Westmeath.
The Dublin victims, both teenagers, were wounded late on Friday night and in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Suspects for both of those shootings are heavily involved in organised crime in north Dublin and the west of the city.
The victim of Friday night's attack was wounded in the head. Aged 19, he was discovered with life-threatening injuries in the front garden of a house on Shancastle Park, Clondalkin, at about 11pm.
He was taken by ambulance to Connolly Hospital where he remains critically ill, although medical staff believe he will survive.
The victim had become embroiled in a dispute in west Dublin with older men heavily involved in organised crime.
The leader of the gang suspected of Friday’s shooting is a middle-aged criminal with a long history of violent crime. He has specialised in crimes with hostage-taking and has a propensity for extreme violence.
Gardaí are now fearful the shooting of the 19 year old in Clondalkin represents a serious escalation in the local dispute.
Ballymun shooting
In the unrelated shooting in the early hours of Saturday morning, a teenager was wounded in the abdomen when shots were fired into a house in Ballymun.
The attack occurred at about 2.25am at a house on Barnwell Drive. The victim is undergoing treatment in the Mater hospital and is expected to survive.
While criminals from Ballymun, some of whom are known to the injured man, are involved in a gangland feud, the weekend attack does not appear to be feud-related.
The victim of the third attack in recent days, in Athlone on Saturday night, sustained the least serious injuries. He was wounded in the knee on Retreat Road when a short was fired at about 9.40pm.
Gardaí are working on a definite line of inquiry and a juvenile was arrested for questioning.
He was being held at Athlone Garda station under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
Garda believe the incident is linked to a low-level localised dispute. The injured man was treated briefly in hospital and discharged.
Gun crime revival
The shootings in Dublin follow a period in which gun crime has shown signs of revival for the first time in the capital since its collapse almost 10 years ago.
Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy, who is in charge of policing in the Dublin region, last week said gun crime had increased by 9 per cent this year in the city.
The drugs trade nationally, and especially in Dublin where it is concentrated, collapsed along with the wider economy from 2008.
The spending power of recreational drug users, who make up most of the drugs market, plummeted in line with disposable incomes because of the recession. It meant the drugs trade contracted, like the legitimate economy. And rates of gun crime, which is mostly linked to the drugs trade, witnessed corresponding declines.
The exception to that trend has been the outbreak of the Kinahan-Hutch feud. While many of those involved are drug dealers, the feud is a personalised dispute and is not linked to the drugs market.
