Armed garda checkpoints have been set up over Dublin this weekend as fears grow over an all-out gangland war following the murder of a criminal at a boxing weigh-in.



The Garda Síochána confirmed on Sunday that armed officers are being deployed at major arterial routes around the Irish capital after the fatal shooting of David Byrne in the Regency hotel on Dublin’s Swords Road on Friday.

The checkpoints are expected to be in place for several days over fears of retaliation, the force said. Senior officers also insist that progress is being made in their investigation into the killing of Byrne, a member of a south Dublin crime gang controlled by Irish gangster Christy Kinahan who lives in southern Spain.

Byrne was shot dead in a highly organised assault on the hotel by six gunmen loyal to a north Dublin criminal known as The Monk. The gang, which included one man dressed as a woman in a blonde wig and grey dress, failed however to wipe out Kinahan’s top gangsters during the event.

Gardai also confirmed that they have been working with Interpol as well as police forces in the UK and Spain in relation to Friday’s gun attack.

Police officers maintained a strong presence at the Regency hotel on Sunday. They are now looking over a large volume of CCTV and television footage as well as still photographs and collating that with eyewitness testimony.

Six men were involved, three of whom were dressed in paramilitary uniforms with a Garda logo and armed with AK-47 assault rifles, while a stocky man with a cap and a man dressed as a woman each had a handgun. The sixth man drove the Ford transit van used as a getaway vehicle in the attack.

The owner of the hotel, James McGettigan, revealed that he repeatedly tried but failed to contact the gardai as he witnessed two hitmen gun down their gangland rival.He said he tried to raise the alarm three times but when his calls went unanswered, he was forced to hang up and call a garda friend instead.

The hotel owner and businessman witnessed Byrne being killed during the attack. He told the Independent on Sunday: “He was shot three times, twice in the body and once in the head. These guys made sure he was killed. There was smoke coming out of his body.”