GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING the shooting dead of a man in Dublin are studying his links to some of the city's drugs gangs in an effort to find a motive for the murder.
Christopher McDonagh (27) was killed in a gun attack just before midnight on Tuesday at his home in Ronanstown, west Dublin. His was the 13th gun homicide of the year.
Mr McDonagh was in bed at about 11.50pm when two men pulled up outside his house in a car fitted with a taxi sign. The men, at least one of whom was armed with a handgun, broke through the hall door of the house in the Woodavens estate.
The attackers ran up the stairs, but by the time they reached Mr McDonagh's bedroom he had realised what was happening and had climbed out the window.
Mr McDonagh jumped on to a porch roof and then on to the bonnet of his car before trying to run away. However, after firing shots through the bedroom window after Mr McDonagh, the two attackers ran back down the stairs and into the garden after their wounded victim.
The armed man discharged four shots, killing Mr McDonagh. The dead man was shot at point-blank range at least once after he collapsed. He died on the pavement.
The two attackers got back into their dark-coloured saloon car and sped from the scene. A young woman, believed to be Mr McDonagh's partner, was in the house at the time and was said to be deeply traumatised.
Supt Pat Claven of Ronanstown Garda station said one of the attackers was described as being about 178cm (5'10") tall, of heavy build and dressed in dark clothing. The second man was shorter and not as heavily built.
Mr McDonagh was originally from Crumlin, Dublin, and was known to gardaí. He had one conviction for possession of firearms.
He had recently clashed with a major criminal, and that argument is one line of inquiry being explored in relation to the murder.
He was a partner in a firm which sold second-hand luxury cars from commercial premises around the Naas Road. He recently bought a house in the Woodavens estate and in the garden he built a second property.
Three years ago he was found with €40,000 in cash in a house in Crumlin. It was confiscated and he later paid another €60,000 to the Criminal Assets Bureau.
In late 2006, gardaí investigating the Finglas-based gang led by Martin "Marlo" Hyland seized cannabis on the Naas Road valued at more than €2 million, under Operation Oak.
Mr McDonagh was one of a group of men arrested. Unlike the others he was never charged and, because of this, criminals suspected he was an informer.
The dead man was an associate of members of two drugs gangs in Crumlin and Drimnagh, whose feud has claimed at least 11 lives in the past eight years.
He had a close relationship with a major Dublin drug dealer now living in Co Kildare, and he was linked to a drugs gang of men in their 20s in the Clondalkin area.
He was interviewed in 1999 by gardaí about a gang fight in a warehouse in Ballymount, Dublin, in which he was involved. A drugs gang with which Mr McDonagh was aligned clashed with members of the INLA in a gang fight dubbed the "Ballymount bloodbath". An INLA man died from his injuries days after the fight.
