GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING the shooting of three men in Tallaght late on Monday night have found two guns they believe were used in the attack.
The two Glock handguns were found close to the crime scene on Kilmartin Drive where Stephen O’Halloran was shot dead in a car outside his mother’s house and two other men were wounded.
Another two guns were found by gardaí investigating gangland crime in Finglas. The pistol and the revolver were recovered with heroin valued at €80,000 on open ground at McKelvey Avenue.
Separately, it has emerged that another man shot in a gangland attack on Tuesday was murdered less than four hours after disembarking from a flight from Amsterdam. He was also stopped at a Garda checkpoint two hours before he was killed.
Graham McNally (35), Cappagh Avenue, Finglas, was shot several times in the head with a semi-automatic weapon on a cul-de-sac off the old Derry road at Coldwinters near Finglas.
The Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and Deputy Commissioner Martin Callinan have had talks with the senior officers leading both murder inquiries.
Mr Murphy told The Irish Timesthe force was "determined in our resolve" to catch the killers.
The motive for the McNally killing is unclear but two avenues are being explored.
Gardaí believe the leader of a major Finglas crime gang may have either shot McNally himself or ordered his murder. One theory is that the gang leader believed McNally, his close associate, had recently conspired with two other men to kill him.
That shooting was foiled when gardaí seized the gun that was to be used in the attack. Gardaí investigating that gun seizure are working on the theory that the two men wanted to shoot both the gang leader and McNally in revenge for the fatal shooting in Finglas last August of gangland figure Paul “Farmer” Martin.
However, it now appears the gang leader had become convinced he was the sole target of that foiled murder attempt and that McNally was involved in it.
The other theory being explored is that McNally and his gang leader were in fact both the targets of the two men arrested with the gun recently.
Garda sources said it is possible that associates of the two arrested men decided to continue their efforts to shoot McNally and succeeded in doing so by somehow luring him to the murder scene at Coldwinters at about 5pm on Tuesday.
Supt John Harnett appealed for anybody who was in the area any time after 4pm on Tuesday to come forward. He said people may have been driving to or from a Roadstone quarry or a garden centre close to the scene.
He said there was “no doubt” that some criminals were willing to resort to violence to settle disputes. “We’ve faced down these people in the past and we are confident we can face them down again,” he said.
Armed Garda patrols have been stepped up in Finglas in response to Tuesday’s shooting and a number of other gun attacks in the area in the past two weeks.
The motive for the unrelated shooting of three men in Tallaght just before midnight on Monday is also undetermined.
Gardaí believe the dead man, Stephen O’Halloran, was the main target of two attackers who fired at least 10 shots from two hand guns.
O’Halloran (20) was shot in the head and body while sitting in the driver’s seat of a green Renault Classic Megane.
Two other men in the car were wounded but managed to run to safety. They are recovering in Tallaght hospital.
O’Halloran had come to the attention of gardaí for a number of serious assaults and robberies. Gardaí are investigating if his death is linked to any of these.
While O’Halloran was known to gardaí, there is no firm evidence linking him to major drug dealing. However, gardaí believe he may have been shot by a local drug-dealing gang who believed he was trying to establish himself as a dealer.