Two Dublin children caught in crossfire in separate shootings

Councillors in Dublin have reacted angrily after two children were caught up in unrelated shooting incidents over the weekend.

An 11-year-old boy was taken to hospital with a shotgun wound to the arm after his family’s home in Tallaght was attacked by a gang in the early hours of Saturday morning.

In an unrelated incident in Ballyfermot, a seven-year-old girl witnessed her father being shot once in the stomach and once in the leg. The girl was not injured when a bullet struck the motorcycle helmet she was wearing while sitting on her father’s moped.

Local Labour Party councillor Mick Duff said the shooting in Tallaght was an "appalling episode" and said parents involved in criminality needed to think about their children.

Family targeted

He said the boy, who is from the Traveller community, could have been killed. “No child should be exposed to that type of danger.” Saturday’s incident was not the first time the family had been targeted.

A number of caravans and a car parked in the yard of their home on Belgard Road were damaged in a previous attack. Mr Duff said there “doesn’t seem to be any sense of proportionality” in the apparent feud.

The bungalow that was attacked is in a relatively isolated area on the Belgard Road. Shots were fired and many windows were broken. The family have left the home and it was vacant yesterday morning.

Mr Duff said the Tallaght local community was shocked. “If that had happened in a built-up area in any of our estates, God only knows what could have happened.”

He said the incident should be a “wake-up call” for adults whose actions and behaviour put their children’s lives at risk.

“They know the risks of what they are involved with. These feuds don’t seem to have any boundaries to them. It’s nothing to do with culture . . . it’s pure criminality.”

Living in fear

After Friday’s shooting in Ballyfermot, meanwhile, local Sinn Féin councillor Daithí Doolan said the community was living in fear.

The girl caught up in that incident also reportedly witnessed the shooting in June that left six-year-old Seán Scully paralysed.

“The fear is real,” Mr Doolan added. “The locals have seen gun crime and they’ve seen the consequences of it in the area.”

He said the question of whether the shooting was a case of mistaken identity was irrelevant to the community.

“That’s only an issue when the incident is being investigated. The wider community suffers regardless of whether it was mistaken or not . . . every time there is gun crime like that it undermines the community.”