A total of 11 people have died at the hands of alleged gang members in the city since 2000, although gardai have managed to curtail the situation recently. The worst year for fatalities was 2003, when a major feud between two rival drugs gangs led to a serious escalation of violence.

Six people were shot dead in Limerick in 2003, and although not all were directly related to the feud, the figure demonstrates the availability of weapons in the city. Amongst those killed in the city that year was Kieran Keane, leader of one of the gangs, who was shot dead by a group of five men in Drombanna on 29 January.

Gang members John Ryan (47) and Michael Campbell-McNamara (23) were also gunned down.

Keane's killing sparked off a major gang war in the city and focused national attention on Limerick. While the Limerick gangs were never as lucrative as their Dublin counterparts, they were no less vicious. The feud in Limerick was intensified by the involvement of dissident republicans who are believed to have supplied many of the weapons used in the city.

The Ryan and Keane gangs had once been united, but fell out after Eddie Ryan . . .

who acted as an enforcer for the Keane brothers, Christy and Kieran . . . demanded a larger slice of the profits. Eddie Ryan was shot dead in November 2000. Christy Keane is currently serving a prison sentence for drug charges.

Ryan's killing was the only ganglandrelated death in Limerick in 2000, and there was to be just one more the following year. Brian Hanley (20), from Meelick, was stabbed following a brawl outside a pub in Killelly in August 2001. Although Hanley's killing may not have been directly related to organised crime, the youth was known to gardai and was on bail at the time of his killing, having been arrested in connection with a 1m ecstasy haul. Hanley left Hassett's pub on his own but was followed by a group of up to 12 men, who attacked him.

Bouncer Brian Fitzgerald (34) was shot dead outside his home in Corbally in November 2002. Fitzgerald was gunned down by a hired hitman after he refused drug dealers entry to a nightclub.

Since the ending of the feud in 2003, it is believed that the gangs in the city have lost considerable power. There was one person shot dead in a gangland-style killing in 2004. Stephen Carey (23), from Ballynanty, died after being shot while drinking in the Moyross area of the city in June of that year.

The most recent gangland killing in Limerick was that of David Nunan (25), from O'Malley Park, who was executed in October of last year. He was discovered face down in a laneway with a gunshot wound to his back. He was out of prison only a few days, having served time for firearms offences.

Although gardai have had success in combating organised crime in the city, nonfatal shootings remain commonplace. The most recent shooting in Limerick took place on Thursday night when a man in his forties was shot in the back by two youths after a brick had been thrown through the front window of his house. His condition is not thought to be life threatening.