Gardaí are preparing for further violence as the cycle of vengeance between rival west Dublin gangs intensifies, writes Conor Lally
When a gunman opened fire in west Dublin on Wednesday a family already in mourning for one lost son was shattered further by the loss of another. As 32-year-old father of one Mark Glennon lay bleeding to death on the pavement outside his home in Hazelwood Crescent, Hartstown, his father Frank, who witnessed the murder, cradled his son as his life slipped away.
Frank Glennon and his family know more than most about the human cost of the gang warfare that goes with Dublin's drugs trade. The Glennons have lost two of their sons in the last six months. Before Mark's gangland assassination this week, his younger brother Andrew was gunned down in the middle of the night in April in Clonee, Co Meath. A gang of four men gathered around his car and, like a scene from The Godfather, fired into it until they were sure the 30-year-old was dead.
That both of the Glennons were heavily involved in a major cocaine and heroin gang, and that they had regularly used their own guns on their rivals, will in no way diminish their family's grief.
Tragically, the Glennons are not alone in losing two sons to gangland executioners. Feuding families of young men on the estates of west Dublin are cancelling each other out. And despite the best efforts of gardaí to halt the bloodshed, there is no end in sight. One killing begets another.
The Sugg family, from Corduff in Blanchardstown, know what the Glennons are going through. But they probably don't have much sympathy, as it is believed it was the Glennon brothers that killed one of their sons.
On a Sunday night in August two years ago, as Bernard Sugg (23) sat drinking in the Brookwood Inn in Corduff, two masked gunmen walked in and singled him out. They riddled the crowded pub with bullets from their semi-automatic weapons, fatally wounding their victim.
Nobody has ever been charged with the murder. But from the outset the Garda believed Mark and Andrew Glennon were responsible for Sugg's murder.
THE GLENNONS, BERNARD Sugg and his brother, Stephen (27), along with Shane Coates (31), were all at one time members of the notorious Blanchardstown-based Westies gang. However, they fell out over drugs and money, and the Glennons broke away from the group.
The Glennons remained intense rivals of their former associates. A steady stream of fist-fights, knife attacks and non-fatal shooting incidents ensued between the two groups. That rivalry significantly escalated with the shooting dead of Bernard Sugg in August 2003.
Gardaí feared an all-out war after that killing. Stephen Sugg and Shane Coates had a propensity for extreme violence and both were incensed when Bernard Sugg was killed.
However, just months later, Stephen Sugg and Coates went missing in southern Spain. The much-anticipated bloodbath never materialised. Both men had gone to Alicante, gardaí believe, to establish sources for cheap cocaine for import into Ireland. However, they are believed to have fallen foul of those they were dealing with. They are now missing in Spain, presumed dead.
The Sugg family will probably never have the body of their second son to bury alongside that of his brother. At least the Glennons had that small comfort this week.
The Cunningham family, also from west Dublin, is another that has seen its share of tragedy in recent years. Paul Cunningham was shot dead by rivals as he lay in bed with his partner and young child in his mother's house at Dromheath Avenue, Mulhuddart.
At 3am on November 21st, 2004, two masked gunmen broke into the house, made their way upstairs, burst into the bedroom and shot the 23-year-old a number of times with a shotgun.
Cunningham was well known to gardaí and had links with the Westies gang. He was involved in drug-dealing, armed robbery and theft.
Cunningham was from a family of eight siblings. He was the third member of the family to have died in violent circumstances. In 1995 his brother, Gary (16), was one of three boys killed in Ratoath, Co Meath, when the stolen car they were in went out of control, hit a tree and burst into flames. Another brother, Paul (19), was stabbed to death in 2000.
Meanwhile, gardaí are bracing themselves for further violence in west Dublin and have responded by beefing up Operation Anvil.
The safety precautions taken by Mark Glennon were not enough to save his life, but they offer a unique insight into the environment in which gardaí are operating. He had installed bulletproof glass at his home, along with reinforced doors and CCTV cameras on the back, front and side entrances. He also wore a bulletproof vest on occasion.
The Glennons were part of a large gang made up of a hard core of 12 dangerous armed drug-dealers. Many of these are cocaine-users with a history of extreme violence. There will be no shortage of candidates prepared to avenge the brothers' murders.