Drive-by shooting at nightclub

A hotel nightclub which was shot at in an apparent drive-by shooting at the weekend had been receiving threats.

Portlaoise gardaí are investigating the incident at Legends nightclub in the East End Hotel, Portarlington, in which two shots were fired from a car which drove past the hotel on Main Street at 11.25pm on Saturday and then sped off.

A Dublin-registered 05 blue Audi car, which had been stolen last month in Maynooth, Co Kildare, was later found on fire on the outskirts of the town.

Garda investigators sealed off both areas for examination. Marks on the nightclub wall showed the shots fired at the hotel came from a shotgun.

Nobody was injured in the incident which occurred when the nightclub had just opened and before it began to get busy, usually around midnight.

The hotel was reluctant to comment on speculation that the shooting was linked to people being refused entry in recent weeks because the investigation was at an early stage.

However hotel sources said: "We've been fighting the drug dealers in Portarlington for a long time. We've stopped it and a lot of people have been refused entry."

As a result the hotel had been getting threats, and had prevented drug dealing activity by using "a very good security company" and being "top-heavy with security".

The hotel source said: "I think it is an issue that every hotel in the country is dealing with now."

The population of Portarlington has risen by 55 per cent in the past four years with an estimated 7,500 people living in the town, which does not have a full-time Garda station.

Portarlington-based PD county councillor Paul Mitchell described the incident as "strange and bizarre".

"Twenty years ago everyone knew everyone else, but not anymore. There's a lot of people coming down from Dublin, from Naas and Newbridge. Along with the positive side of greater development in the town are the problems of drugs and more law and order offences," he said.

"I don't think people are worried because it is not an everyday occurrence. But there is a concern that this gang warfare could drift down the country from Dublin."