Gardaí investigating the murder of 23-year-old father of one Tom Ward yesterday arrested six men in dawn swoops in counties Mayo and Kildare.
Five were arrested in Ballinrobe and one in Celbridge. The men, aged between 18 and early 40s, were taken to three different Garda stations in the west.
Three were being held in Sligo, two in Castlebar and one in Carrick-on-Shannon.
They can be held for another 48 hours under the Offences Against the State Act before they must be charged or released.
Mr Ward, who had a two-year-old daughter and was from Cranmore, Sligo town, died after being hit with the back of an axe as he sat in a van outside his parents' home in nearby Joe McDonnell Drive on August 13th.
An axe, slash-hooks and a number of balaclavas were recovered from an abandoned car four miles from the scene of the murder.
The killing was the third unsolved murder in Sligo in just over two years.
It was believed to have been linked to an ongoing feud between some families in Sligo.
Detectives believe that two incidents a few hours before the murder sparked the attack.