Detectives investigating Dublin's latest gangland-style murder and a separate gun attack in the south of the city are examining links to the drugs trade as possible motives for both.
Senior Garda sources said that while they are satisfied a non-fatal shooting at a house in Loughlinstown, Co Dublin, early yesterday was drugs related, they say the man killed in his Clondalkin home late on Tuesday was not known to them.
The victim has been named as 23-year-old Damien Dowdall. His death was the first gun murder of the year.
He was shot by two men who called to his home on Lealand Rd, Clondalkin, while he was watching television at about 10.15pm. He had no criminal convictions.
Gardaí are trying to establish if any recent incidents may have brought him into contact with drug dealers who had access to guns and believed they had reason to kill him.
The Irish Times has learned that the man was associated with a number of known drug dealers. One of this circle has been before the courts to face a murder charge.
Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said there were indications the killing "may have been motivated by a drug-trafficking background".
"If that is the case, it indicates once again that the drug and gun culture are inextricably linked. I believe that the drug and gun culture now ... poses as significant a threat to the wellbeing of the Irish State and Irish society as the paramilitaries did at any stage of their campaign for a quarter of a century."
Mr Dowdall was watching television with his girlfriend, Debbie Quinn, at their home when two armed and masked men called to the house. When Ms Quinn answered the door they pushed past her into the hallway.
They then ran into the sitting room, singled out Mr Dowdall and fired two shots from a shotgun. The victim was hit at least once in the head. Both attackers fled the scene on foot towards nearby Deansrath Park where officers believe they may have parked a getaway vehicle.
Gardaí and the emergency services were alerted immediately but Mr Dowdall was pronounced dead at the scene a short time after the attack.
Ms Quinn was the only other person in the house at the time of the killing. She was said to be in a very distressed state last night.
Garda said his parents - Carol and Damien snr - knew of no reason why their son would be targeted.
Gardaí said Mr Dowdall, who worked as a printer, was clearly singled out for attack and at this stage they do not believe his killing was a case of mistaken identity. "We don't believe that he expected to be attacked by anybody," said one source.
"He doesn't appear to have said anything to his close family and he clearly wasn't taking any precautions that you'd expect of a fella who thought he was in trouble."
Supt John Hartnett last night appealed for anyone who may have seen anything suspicious around Lealand Rd or the Deansrath or Cuthbert's Park area about the time of the killing to contact them.
Meanwhile, two men were being questioned by gardaí last night following a shooting at a house in Co Dublin at 2.30am yesterday. A number of shots were fired through the hall door of a house at Loughlinstown Wood, Loughlinstown. There were four people in the house at the time but nobody was injured.
A number of Garda patrols were on the scene within minutes and two men were arrested in the vicinity. The men, aged 23 and 26, are both known to gardaí for their involvement in the drugs trade.