According to accounts given to gardai by Freddie Thompson, the gangland war began in 1998 after a bike belonging to Declan Gavin was burnt out by a man called Derek Lodge.

Gavin retaliated by attempting to petrol bomb Lodge's house and Gavin's mother's car was later burnt with acid. Events escalated from there.

Gavin was friendly with Freddie Thompson and they joined forces while Rattigan sided with Lodge's friends and the two factions were born.

Gavin was arrested on 11 August 1999 with a large amount of ecstasy tablets and was detained again on 10 March 2000 at the Holiday Inn, Pearse Street in possession of 700,000 worth of cocaine.

He was not charged with either offence which led to accusations that he was a garda informant. The 20-year-old was stabbed to death outside Abrakebabra on the Crumlin Road on 25 August 2001. Brian Rattigan has been identified as the killer.

On 17 March 2002 the Thompson gang went to Rattigan's house on Cooley Road and four shots were discharged. Rattigan suffered a stomach injury and lost a kidney. His girlfriend identified Freddie Thompson as the gunman but the DPP decided that no charges should be brought.

On 22 May 2002 26-year-old Derek Lodge was shot dead in a workshop outside his parent's house on Kilworth Road, Drimnagh.

Friends of Declan Gavin are thought to have been responsible.

The third feud-related murder occurred on 16 July 2002 and was in revenge for Gavin's killing. Brian Rattigan's 18-year-old brother Joseph was shot dead at point blank range outside his home by a threeman gang led by Paul Warren.

On 25 February 2004 Paul Warren was shot dead by Gary Bryan in the toilet of Gray's pub in Newmarket Square. This was in retaliation for Joey Rattigan's murder.

After this murder there was no going back , and the Thompson gang avenged Warren's killing on 9 March 2005 when they shot 25-year-old John Roche outside his apartment on Irwin Street, Kilmainham. Four people were involved in this murder, including Darren Geoghegan.

The following month on 14 April Terence Dunleavy, a 27-year-old drug dealer from Marino, was shot four times in the head outside his girlfriend's flat at Croke Villas, Ballybough.

It was initially believed that Dunleavy had fallen foul of local drug dealers but detectives later linked the motorbike used in the killing to a relative of Freddie Thompson's and it has now been ascertained that members of the Thompson gang had Dunleavy murdered. He was the sixth feud victim.

An uneasy truce was called following Dunleavy's murder but it ended spectacularly on 13 November 2005 when Darren Geoghegan and Gavin Byrne were both shot in the head as they sat in a Silver Lexus at a housing estate in Firhouse.

They were both senior members of the Thompson gang and had been set up by a man who was known to them, on the premise of completing a drugs deal.

Revenge for this double murder was swift and brutal. Just two days later 27-year-old Noel Roche was driving home after attending a Phil Collins concert when he was ambushed by masked men outside the Yacht pub on the Clontarf Road.

His murderers had spotted him at the concert and took advantage of the sighting, leaving another man who was also in the car, lucky to escape serious injury. Noel Roche was a brother of John, who had been murdered earlier in the year.

On 19 August 2006 Wayne Zambra, a 21-year-old from Maryland, off Cork Street, was shot twice in the head as he sat in his car with another man on Cameron Street in the south inner city. Two gunmen were involved in the murder of Zambra, who was aligned to the Rattigan gang.

The last victim of this feud died last September. Gary Bryan (31) was standing on the footpath outside his girlfriend's house on Bunting Road, Walkinstown when a car drove past and opened fire, killing him instantly.

Bryan was close to Brian Rattigan and was a known hitman with at least four "kills" to his name. He was the prime suspect in the Wayne Zambra murder and had gone on trial for the murder of Paul Warren in July 2002 only for the case to collapse after the key witness was intimidated into remaining silent.

The death toll in this bloody feud currently stands at 11. Seven of Brian Rattigan's friends and associates have been murdered and four of Freddie Thompson's gang have now lost their lives.

Detectives say this feud will claim more victims and that like their counterparts in Limerick, there is no end in sight.