Gardaí investigating the first murder in the Drogheda gangland feud in Co Louth are questioning two people. The man and woman being held, in their 20s and 40s, are known to each other and were being questioned about the murder of Keith Branigan.
The 29-year-old was gunned down on the Ashling Holiday Park in Clogherhead, Co Louth, on Tuesday, August 27th, 2019. His was the first murder in the Drogheda feud and represented a serious escalation in the violence after a series of gun attacks in which men were wounded but all survived.
The two people in custody were detained on Monday and have addresses in Co Louth. While the murder investigation has been ongoing since 2019, the two people now in custody are the first to be arrested by investigating gardaí as part of the Branigan murder inquiry.
The woman is not a suspect in the case though the man detained has been a person of interest to gardaí investigating a number of the Drogheda feud shootings.
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They were being questioned at Garda stations in Balbriggan, north Co Dublin, and in Drogheda, Co Louth. Both were detained under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, which allows for gardaí investigating gang-related offences to detain people for up to seven days without charge.
Branigan (29) was a close associate of a leading figure on the side of the feud that had carried out four gun attacks in the year before the murder. He had a history of involvement in serious assaults, burglaries and criminal damage cases in his teens before progressing to drug dealing as he got older.
Gardaí believe the rival gang knew he was spending time at the Ashling Caravan Park, erecting decking on a newly installed mobile home, and targeted him there in a well planned ambush. The killer was driven into the caravan park in a red Lexus before getting out of the car, firing at the victim and being driven away in the same car by at least one accomplice in the direction of Termonfeckin.
They then got into a black Toyota Avensis which was later found abandoned in the Clonmore Estate in Ardee. While the Lexus had been burnt-out at Thurles Road in Dunleer, the Toyota Avensis was intact when it was found.
The year before the murder was marked by escalating violence between the two rival Louth-based drugs gangs involved in the feud, including petrol bombings on houses and cars, shootings, beatings and various other acts of violence.
