Gardaí in Dublin yesterday arrested two men in relation to the killing of a father of five in Ballyfermot on Wednesday.
Mr Thomas Farrell (43) was stabbed at his home in Cherry Orchard Avenue shortly after 8 p.m. on Wednesday evening after he attempted to stop two men from stealing his car, which was parked outside his house.
He was rushed to St James's Hospital in the city, where he was pronounced dead shortly before 2 a.m. on Thursday.
Mr Farrell, originally from Inchicore in Dublin, first confronted the two thieves as they tried to take his nine-year-old Peugeot company car from the the driveway of his family's home.
The men then followed him into the hallway of his home, where he was stabbed in the back. Mr Farrell's wife, Gráinne, and some of his five children were in the house when he was attacked.
Det Supt Hubert Collins, from Ballyfermot Garda station, who is leading the murder investigation, yesterday confirmed that a man in his 20s had been arrested in relation to the murder. A second man, in his late teens, was arrested later yesterday afternoon.
A file on the investigation would, he said, be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who will then decide whether there should be charges.
Supt Collins appealed for any witnesses who might have been in the area to contact local gardaí. "We are still anxious to talk to anybody who might have seen anything," he said.
"We are following a definite line of inquiry and are investigating every angle so we would encourage anybody who knows anything to come forward."
The murder weapon, which has not yet been found, is thought to have been taken away by Mr Farrell's attackers.
Responding to the news of the murder, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, who is in Brussels, said he wished to condemn what he described as a "cowardly and brutal" killing in the strongest possible terms.
The Labour Party spokesman on justice, Mr Joe Costello, said the killing highlighted the need for better community policing.
"The challenge is now for the Minister and the Government to manage Garda resources in such a way as to allow communities to rebuild their confidence in policing," he said.
Meanwhile, neighbours and friends of the Farrell family yesterday expressed their shock at the murder of someone they described as "a "lovely family man".
One neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said Cherry Orchard Avenue was "one of the quietest areas of Cherry Orchard."
"You would never have thought something like this would happen on your doorstep," she said. "If you came around here at night-time, you wouldn't hear a sinner."
While the area had in the past experienced occasional problems with "joyriders" and "the odd stolen car", another pointed out, nothing like this had ever occurred before.