Don’s pal was in heated row 24 hrs before he was shot.
BY KEN FOY – 14 JUNE 2014 12:00 AM
GUNNED-down gangland figure Brian O’Reilly was involved in heated row with members of a north inner city mob just 24 hours before the botched attempt on his life.
Hard man O’Reilly - who was best mates with slain mob boss Eamon The Don’ Dunne - had been involved in a large number of disagreements with different criminal groupings across the capital recently.
Sources say that O’Reilly (45) will survive being shot three times outside a gym, and near a children’s adventure centre, in Balbriggan, north Dublin yesterday morning.
The Ballymun native, who lives in Laytown, Co Meath, was last night said to be conscious and “sitting up in bed” at Beaumont Hospital.
gunman
Three shots from a handgun were fired at O’Reilly as he sat in his VW Passat car after he arrived at the Platinum gym shortly after 11am yesterday.
It is understood that he was hit twice in the chest and once in the hand in the shooting which was not caught on CCTV.
The gunman shot him twice through the passenger window and once while O’Reilly was on the ground after he escaped from the car.
Gardai are appealing for witnesses who may have seen the gunman escape in a white Nissan 200 SX or a white Toyota Supra.
Of the 45-year-old mobster’s many disagreements with rival gangs the most recent is with a crime gang based in the north inner city who have fallen out with O’Reilly over a cash dispute.
Sources say that he was involved in a heated row on Thursday morning with members of this mob - just 24 hours before the gunman tried to kill him.
Another theory being probed by gardai is a “simmering row” between associates of O’Reilly and a Coolock drugs gang.
The dispute is over allegations that cannabis herb - worth a six-figure sum - was stolen by the Coolock mob during a violent incident in Co Meath in April. A senior source pointed out: “There had been talk that associates of O’Reilly were looking for revenge for the drugs that had gone missing and maybe the Coolock gang decided to strike first.
“That would be their form, they have been involved in at least two serious shooting incidents in the past few weeks.”
Sources said that detectives are “satisfied” that the attempted murder was not carried out by the Real IRA who previously tried to kill O’Reilly in a pub in Bettystown, Co Meath, in August 2010.
“Dissident involvement seems very unlikely even though they tried to whack him before, the IRA are not that organised at the moment,” a source said.
Another theory being examined is whether he was targeted by criminals from his native Ballymun after gardai received reports that O’Reilly and his close friend Derek McLoughlin (49) had been “shoving their weight around the locality.”
gym
McLoughlin, who like O’Reilly carried the coffin of their friend Eamon Dunne, survived a gun attack outside a gym in Swords in May of last year.
In December 2010, O’Reilly claimed in the High Court that senior gardai were in collusion with crime journalists to get him killed.
He said that after Dunne was shot dead, he had become the focus of media speculation over who was taking control of Dunne’s crime organisation.
