Gardaí investigating the latest gangland murder in the capital believe that the Provisional IRA may have been responsible because one of its alleged former members was murdered three months ago.

Jason Egan (23) was closing his family's Centrepoint newsagent on the corner of Ladyswell Road, in Mulhuddart, west Dublin, at 8.30pm on Friday night when he was shot at least four times in the chest by a lone gunman.

A relative of Egan is the prime suspect in the murder of Wayne Doherty (32) in Blanchardstown last July.

Following Doherty's murder, a notice appeared in the republican newspaper, An Phoblacht, in which "the Republican Movement Dublin" offered condolences for his death.

Dozens of uniformly dressed men carried Doherty's tricolour-draped coffin at his funeral to the music of a lone tin-whistler.

It has been since reported that Wayne Doherty had been a member of the IRA and gardaí were aware of serious tensions since his murder with rumours that the Provisionals were planning to avenge his death.

Egan was not involved in criminality but was murdered because his relation has been in hiding in Turkey since the Doherty murder and he was seen as an easy target. He survived an attempt on his life last month.

Doherty was himself an innocent victim. The bread delivery man was shot after trying to prevent a gun attack on the home of a family friend. Doherty's family say that he had nothing to do with politics. He was a respected boxing coach in the local community and it is believed that he had stopped associating with the IRA prior to his murder.

Gardaí say they have serious concerns about the alleged involvement of the IRA in the murder of Jason Egan but say that the Provisional IRA is a dwindling organisation that has been overtaken by dissident groups such as the Real IRA and INLA.

Egan was shot dead on the same evening that a benefit night for Doherty was being attended by 450 people at a GAA club in Blanchardstown.