The innocent father of one of the victims of the Crumlin/Drimnagh drugs feud ended up in intensive care in hospital last week after being viciously attacked with a hatchet.

Jon 'Rusty' Kenny was in a house on Donore Avenue in Dublin 8 last Thursday afternoon when two men forced their way in.

One produced a sharp hatchet and hit him directly on the top of the head at close range, causing him serious head injuries.

Despite his condition, he managed to fight the two assailants and they fled the scene just seconds before he fell unconscious. The emergency services rushed to the scene and Rusty was brought to St James's Hospital where he was immediately put on life support.

His condition improved yesterday and it is expected that he will survive but doctors will have to assess whether the injury has left Kenny with any permanent brain damage. It is understood that the partner of a sister of a family that the Kennys are in dispute with was responsible for the attack and he is currently being sought by gardaí.

The attack on Jon Kenny is the latest blow for the family. In July 2007, 21-year-old Ian Kenny was shot dead in a car in Stillorgan, south Dublin.

He was hit at close range with a shotgun to the head and shoulder but managed to survive in intensive care until August 2009 when his family made the decision to turn his life support machine off.

The man arrested for the shooting said he owed a €50,000 debt to notorious criminal Fat Freddie Thompson but the Kenny family claim their son was murdered by another local family they had been in dispute with.

Jon Kenny's daughter has had to take her children out of school because they have been consistently attacked in the playground by members of the rival family.