Gardaí are investigating a shooting in Dublin, the second gun attack in the State in consecutive days, amid fears gun crime linked to feuds has begun to rise again after falling for years.
The latest incident occurred in Clondalkin, west Dublin, on Tuesday night, just a day after a gun attack in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, left a man hospitalised.
The two incidents come amid a spate of shootings across the country in recent weeks that have raised concerns among gardaí.
Gardaí in Clondalkin responded to a 999 call reporting gunshots in St Killian’s Park shortly before 9pm on Tuesday.
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A man in his 40s was brought to Tallaght University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Separately, gardaí investigating a shooting on bank holiday Monday in Ballinasloe, Co Galway – believed to be linked to a local criminal feud – have arrested a man for questioning as the victim was recovering from his injuries.
Gun attacks in the Republic had fallen so low in recent years that the Health Service Executive (HSE) stopped registering a specific figure for the number of attacks in official data.
Data from the HSE shows that, in 2024, fewer than five people were wounded in “gun assaults”. Because the number was so low it would not supply a specific figure, to safeguard the privacy of those treated after being wounded. The three preceding years saw 10, 13 and nine cases of patients being treated after gun assaults.
The total for 2024 represented a reduction of more than 90 per cent from the 2005 peak of 59 such cases.
Recent incidents suggest shootings resulting in injury are increasing again, though it will take some time before official crime data fully captures current trends.
On July 24th, three people were injured, with one hospitalised, after a man walked up to the front window of a home in Ennis and fired into the front room with a shotgun.
The shooter and a driver fled the scene in a black car – which was later found burnt out – and a video of the incident taken by the perpetrators was later posted to social media.
Less than a week earlier, a man in his 60s was shot in the chest on Hyde Road in Limerick city by two masked men on e-bikes. The incident is believed to be related to a continuing feud.
On July 1st, a man in his 20s was seriously injured outside his home in a suspected feud-related attack at Shancastle Close in Clondalkin. The man was taken to hospital with serious gunshot injuries to his upper body.
Shortly after midnight on Saturday, May 30th, two men on a motorbike rode into the Walled Gardens region in Celbridge, Co Kildare, and fired shots into a house.
A Garda source said the two men fled the scene after firing through a window and that a man in his 20s was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
On Saturday, May 16th, gardaí said shots were fired at a home in the Coolcotts area of Wexford town, resulting in one man being taken to hospital.
