: John Gilligan in 'stable' condition after shooting as friend warns: "There is going to be murder over this"
Drug lord John Gilligan is lucky to be alive after being blasted multiple times by gunmen last night.
The pint-size gangster was shot as he fled to the bathroom at his brother’s home at around 7.05pm.
It was thought he only survived the assassination attempt because he was wearing a bulletproof vest, though later reports have now contradicted this.
Gilligan, who was once a suspect in the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, was rushed to James Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown in Dublin following the shock attack.
He had sustained serious injuries - one of the bullets took out a chunk of his forehead, while another damaged his hip and may have travelled into his stomach.
Collins PhotosGardai preserve the scene in Clondalkin, Dublin Another gunshot shattered a bone in his leg and the fourth bullet hit his chest, missing his heart and lungs by centimetres, during the attack at Greenfort Crescent, Clondalkin in Dublin.
Veronica Guerin's brother Jimmy Guerin said his son called him about the attack on Saturday night.
Speaking to RTE Radio 1 on Sunday morning, he said: "It would be wrong to gloat because I don’t believe that anybody should be shot.
"But it would be hypocritical of me to say that I was upset when I heard the news."
The mobster is understood to be in a stable condition in hospital today.
View gallery """" Gilligan scene View gallery
A friend of Gilligan warned of bloody revenge last night.
He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “You can’t come after the boss. There is going to be murder over this.
“They think they can just go in here, and go ‘bang, bang’ and that will be that.
“They will regret this now, I tell you that. They all better watch their backs.
“There is going to be people out to get those that done this. He’s done his time, he’s been in and out of prison, so why do you care about him?
“Why don’t you write good stories about the boss? He’s a good man, put that down.”
Gilligan was freed from Portlaoise Prison on October 15 last year after serving more than 17 years of a 20-year sentence.
Security insiders told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “He’s lucky to be alive.
“He’s been under threat ever since he was released from jail last year and he’d been warned that his life was in danger.
“Everyone knows where his brother lives and it was only a matter of time for something like this to happen.”
A family friend added: “Gilligan was at his brother Jimmy’s house, you know him as Thomas, when it happened.
“He was at a family christening, they were getting ready to go to Fowler’s Pub in Blanchardstown.
“There were more than 20 people in the house.
“Gilligan was in the hallway when two masked gunmen burst in and shot him.”
Panicked relatives raised the alarm after the attack on the mobster who was still conscious and breathing when emergency crews arrived.
A pal of the criminal insisted his wounds were not serious enough to kill him.
The source said: “He was joking and laughing when the paramedics arrived. He walked to the ambulance and his close family still headed to the pub – that’s how serious it was.”
John Gilligan enjoys boozy night with pals
Witnesses said Gilligan was lying on the floor for several minutes before emergency services arrived.
A shocked onlooker, who was on the scene within minutes, added: “People who were in their houses told me they were alerted by the sound of shots.
“It was bang, bang, bang and when they raced on to the street, they saw John Gilligan lying on the ground.
“They believed he was shot dead because he wasn’t moving.
“When the emergency services arrived he remained on the ground for some time before he was taken away in an ambulance. There were a lot of people in the house and garden, including children.
“A jeep drove into the street. A person in the house told me they kicked in the front door and shot him four times.
“The person in the house said John Gilligan had a vest on. It seems the men were driven away in the jeep.
“The gardai were there very quickly and they closed off the immediate scene of the shooting.
“John Gilligan visits the house a lot and people in the street don’t like his attitude because he behaved like Lord Muck. He was full of his own importance.”
His attackers are believed to have fled the scene in a silver jeep or SUV.
Officers are treating the incident as attempted murder and detectives are working on the theory that a former Portlaoise inmate may have ordered the hit.
The ex-prisoner is thought to be linked to a botched attack on Gilligan at the Hole In The Wall pub on beside Dublin’s Phoenix Park last December.
Security sources last night claimed: “The attacker was in Portlaoise Prison at the same time as Gilligan.
“They never saw eye-to-eye.
“He hit Gilligan in the jaw when they were both in jail. And last Wednesday someone broke into his mum’s house.
“Nothing was taken from her home even though there would have been expensive items lying around such as iPods and jewellery. So it’s possible that someone had been trying to intimidate him and the crook decided to retaliate.”
Detectives are also investigating the theory that Christy Kinahan’s rival drug gang may be involved in the incident.
Arch rival..Christy Kinahan Drugs boss Christy Kinahan 'ordered hit on pint-sized thug John Gilligan'
