Gardaí in Dublin have begun a murder investigation after a man who was severely beaten in the city a week ago died of his injuries at the weekend.
His death followed two apparently unrelated shooting incidents in Dublin on Friday night,
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has condemned recent shootings as the work of "violent thugs in the underworld".
Eddie McCabe (21), a father of one from Rafters Lane, Drimnagh, died in St James's Hospital on Saturday, a week after being found badly beaten in a laneway off Tyrconnell Road, Inchicore, on December 1st.
Supt Thady Muldoon of Kevin Street Garda station said Mr McCabe suffered a "severe and brutal assault" and appealed for information about his killing. "He would appear from our investigations to have been dumped in that laneway . . . There are people who have information, we are fully aware of that, there are people who know what happened to Eddie and we are appealing to them to come forward."
Mr McCabe, who lived with his parents, was the father of a young child believed to be about six months old. "His parents are severely traumatised," Mr Muldoon said. "I want to extend the sympathies of An Garda Síochána to the family who have suffered severe trauma over the last week."
Mr McCabe was found by a local resident who was parking a vehicle in a laneway behind a row of houses. It is believed the victim had not been there for more than 30 minutes.
It is known that Mr McCabe was in Drimnagh last Friday evening and later in the Dolphins Barn area. "We have already done fairly comprehensive house-to-house enquiries in the Tyrconnell Road area where the deceased was located," Supt Muldoon said. "Our main appeal is now to individuals who we are sure are out there who have information as to where this assault may have taken place and who was involved.
"At the moment we don't know what implements or weapons were used. We assume there may have been more than one person involved but that's something that will become clear as the inquiry moves on."
Supt Muldoon said the victim had been known to the gardaí. "At this stage our investigations are following several lines of inquiries, but we wouldn't be able to say yet what contributed to this.
"Our investigation to date would indicate that perhaps where Eddie McCabe was located was not where the actual assault took place and we feel that it may have occurred elsewhere and that he was dumped there."
Meanwhile, gardaí in the city are investigating two shootings that happened on Friday night.
The first occurred at Coburg Place off Amien Street just after 7pm, when a gunman on a motorcycle shot a man in the chest in the driveway of his home.
Just over an hour later, in Cabra, another man was shot in the head at Annamoe Parade, a laneway off the North Circular Road. Both men, who are in their 20s, were yesterday recovering in hospital.
A garda spokesman said there appeared to be no link between the shootings.
Mr McDowell condemned recent shootings as the work of "violent thugs in the underworld".
Speaking on RTÉ radio, he said guns and drugs go together, and he called on judges to "get real" in the handing down of sentences.
