A MAN has been arrested for questioning about a shooting outside a pub in which a security doorman was shot in the head and survived.
Two customers who had stepped outside for a cigarette were also wounded in the attack.
The suspect, a Dubliner in his 30s, is being held at Clontarf Garda station. He is being questioned about the attack outside the Players’ Lounge in Fairview, north Dublin, in July of last year.
The man was arrested yesterday morning and is being detained under section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act. He can be held for up to seven days without charge.
Gardaí believe the shooting was linked to a dispute between gangland criminals and the Real IRA in Dublin. None of the three men wounded is in any way involved in crime or dissident republicanism.
The man being detained, from west Dublin, is known to gardaí.
At 12.30am on July 26th last year a lone assailant, wearing a balaclava and brandishing two handguns, approached the pub at the junction of Fairview Strand and Philipsburgh Avenue on foot.
He opened fire on the front of the pub using both firearms.
The pub’s doorman, Warren Barrett (32), from Finglas, was shot in the head. He survived after a period in critical condition.
Austin Purcell (25), from Marino, was shot in the chest but survived, while Brian Masterson (31), who was shot in the back, also survived. Both were customers of the pub and had stepped outside to have a cigarette when the gunman struck.
The shooting was linked to a turf war between the Real IRA and gangland elements over security at bars and clubs in the city, and attempts by the Real IRA to extort money from some of Dublin’s biggest crime gangs.
The Players’ Lounge was gutted by fire on August 2nd last. An employee told gardaí a gang of men broke in, stole €50,000 from the safe, tied him up and set the pub on fire. He told gardaí he managed to escape the fire.
Gardaí do not believe there are links between the shootings and the fire last month.