Gardai investigating the murder of another member of the Travelling community have appealed for the affected families not to take the law into their own hands, and assist in the police inquiries.
The latest victim, shot dead in front of his wife and four young children, appears to have died as a result of one of the internecine disputes which affect the 11,000-strong Travelling community in the Republic.
Mr Thomas "Tomsie" Harty (26) was killed by a shotgun blast to the chest when two men burst into his caravan on a halting site at Balymorris, near Portarlington, Co Laois, just before 5 a.m. yesterday.
Mr Harty was due to stand trial in October for the murder of his first cousin, Mr Danny "Hey" Harty, on March 29th, 1998. The death followed a row in which slash hooks were used outside a pub.
Mr Danny Harty died in Cork University Hospital five days after being struck with a slash hook.
After his cousin's death, Mr Thomas Harty and his family moved from the halting site on the Ballysimon Road in Limerick to Portarlington.
It was the second killing of a member of the Travelling community in a week. Last Monday, Mr Patrick Ward (38) was shot dead while attending a funeral in Ballymote, Co Sligo.
Mr Ward's death is only the latest in a series of killings and serious injuries resulting from a feud between members of his extended family and members of the McDonagh family which is now believed to have run for most of a decade. The Ward-McDonagh dispute is not connected with the dispute which led to Mr Harty's death.
Gardai have expressed concern that the violent disputes between members of Travelling families are showing signs of worsening, with firearms increasingly being used. Previously, weapons like slash-hooks, hatchets, cleavers and cudgels were most frequently used.
Appealing for assistance in the Garda investigations yesterday, Supt Noel McCarthy, of Portlaoise, appealed for information about Mr Harty's murder and said: "I would appeal to the communities affected that they would leave it to the gardai and not take the law into their own hands."
It is believed the two men who shot Mr Thomas Harty used a shovel to rip the lock of the door of the caravan where Mr Harty was asleep with his wife and four children, two boys and two girls aged up to four years.
After the gunmen left, other people living on the site drove Mr Harty to Portlaoise Hospital but he was pronounced dead on arrival.