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Guns are used to commit most murders followed by knives and a “blunt force” object.

And deputy state pathologist Dr Michael Curtis said “extreme violence” is being used in many killings.

He added gunshot wounds account for just over a third of homicides, followed by stabbings and blunt force trauma.

Dr Curtis said: “While that is obvious in the case of the shootings, it’s also the case in many of the stabbings we do, and in many of the blunt force trauma deaths and the assaults we do, with kickings and stamping and so on. Some of those reflect an extreme level of violence.

“Certainly with the blunt force trauma ones – it is violence where there would have to be a sustained assault over a period of time, maybe as much as several minutes.

“We do on occasion see [cases] where someone gets almost the unlucky blow.

“They get a punch and they go back and they bang their head and they die because they banged their head – albeit they wouldn’t have fallen and banged their head had they not been punched. We see it regularly.

“But we also see cases where people have had repeated blows rained on them with fists and feet and stamping as well as kicking.”

The pathologist said alcohol continues to play a big role in many fatal assaults and that in some cases, both the perpetrator and the victim have consumed alcohol.

Booze plays a significant role in many fatal assaults that occur on the street, in licensed premises and at house parties.

Dr Curtis also talked about the impact of turf wars among criminal thugs.

He added: “When it comes to gangland shootings, a lot of that is drug related… disputes over dealership.

“It’s highly lucrative for those who deal in it so they are going to defend their turf.”

Dr Curtis said he had also been struck by the number of suicidal shootings in the State since he began working here in 2004.

While there are no statistics available, he added he got the impression that they were quite numerous.

Dr Curtis said: “These are impressions you have, not something you’ve necessarily scrutinised statistically, but you do see quite at lot of them.

“It’s probably the fact that it’s a rural community and rural communities have firearms. It probably also reflects the fact that most places I’ve worked, I’ve worked on a regional basis, whereas here we work on a national basis…so it’s sample-biased."

Overall, Dr Curtis did not think that Irish society has become more violent since he began working herein 2004.

He said: “What I’m dealing with now is fewer [homicides] than in the really peak years.”

Recent statistics from the CSO indicate an increase in the numbers of homicides between 2011 and last year, with 79 homicides in 2012, compared with 66 in 2011.

But overall the number of murders and manslaughter cases have fallen steadily from a peak in 2007, when there were some 132 homicides, including 77 murders.