Dublin weigh-in murder: doubts cast on Continuity IRA's claims of responsibility

Irish security sources still believe gangland feud behind Friday’s murder of David Byrne at the Regency hotel

 Police tape cordons off the Regency hotel in Dublin after Friday’s shooting. Photograph: AFP/Getty

Henry McDonald in Dublin-Monday 8 February 2016

Security sources in Ireland have expressed scepticism over a claim by theContinuity IRA that it carried out the attack on a boxing weigh-in at a Dublin hotel on Friday.

Gang member David Byrne was shot dead and two others were injured in the carefully planned attack at the Regency hotel, which involved six gunmen, one dressed as a woman.

In a coded statement to the BBC in Belfast, a man claiming to speak on behalf of the Continuity IRA said it had targeted Byrne and that the group would continue to go after “drug dealers and criminals”.

The man’s statement claimed Byrne was shot dead because he had been involved in the killing of Alan Ryan in Dublin four years ago. Ryan was a leading member of another dissident republican group, the Real IRA.

“Although [Ryan] was not a member of our organisation, we are not going to stand back and allow drug dealers and criminals to target republicans,” the statement said. “This will not be an isolated incident. 

Continuity IRA units have been authorised to carry out further operations. More drug dealers and criminals will be targeted. The Continuity IRA will carry out further military operations.”

But security sources in the Irish capital still believe Friday’s attack was rooted in an ongoing feud between the Costa del Sol-based Irish gangster Christy Kinahan and his rival, the north Dublin criminal known as The Monk.

One source said the CIRA statement may have been designed to “muddy the waters and sow confusion”.

The CIRA is one of three armed republican paramilitary groups who oppose theNorthern Ireland peace process. Its origins lie in the 1986 split within the republican movement.

Continuity IRA is the smallest but also the most ideologically pure of the three. It was responsible for the 2009 killing of the Police Service of NorthernIreland constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon, County Armagh.

To counter any retaliation for Friday’s fatal shooting, the Garda Síochána have erected armed checkpoints at major routes into Dublin.

There were reports in the Irish media on Monday morning that senior members of Kinahan’s gang held a “war summit” in a central Dublin pub to discuss retaliating.

Among those that targeted Byrne and other members of Kinahan’s gang on Friday were gunmen carrying AK47 Kalashnikov rifles – once the standard-issue weapon of republican paramilitary groups in Ireland. 

In recent years there has been some crossover between armed republican factions and Dublin-based crime gangs in terms of sharing weapons and targeting rivals.

In 1994 the Provisional IRA claimed responsibility for shooting the infamous criminal Martin “The General” Cahill. But the gunman who killed him was a member of the rival Irish National Liberation Army who was paid about 30,000 Irish punts to eliminate The General on the orders of another Dublin gangster who wanted him out of the way.