Gardaí are continuing to question a man in relation to the murder of publican Matt Farrell who died during a botched robbery in his pub in Daingean, Co Offaly, earlier this month.
The man in custody, who is from the midlands and is in his late 20s, was being held last night at Tullamore Garda station. He is being held under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.
Gardaí are trying to establish if the suspect was at the scene of the killing of Mr Farrell in his Gaelic Bar pub. They are also trying to establish if more than one person was behind the attempted robbery.
The suspect being held last night was arrested at an address in the midlands. He is not from Co Offaly. Gardaí believe he may be linked to other robberies in the midlands in which older people were bound and assaulted before money was demanded from them.
The postmortem carried out by State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy found that Mr Farrell had been beaten on the head. Mr Farrell was found tied to a chair in the downstairs area of his pub by his son Matthew at about 7.30am last Wednesday week. Both father and son lived in an area connected to the pub. A widower, Mr Farrell had four children and a number of grandchildren and siblings.
About 100 gardaí have been drafted into the investigation of his death.