Gardaí are planning to implement a significant security operation for the funeral of dissident republican Vincent Ryan, who was murdered in Dublin on Monday.
The 25-year-old died in hospital after he was ambushed and shot several times as he sat in a car outside his partner’s home in Finglas. His brother, Alan Ryan, a significant figure in the Real IRA was shot dead in 2012.
At Alan Ryan’s funeral in 2012, men dressed in full paramilitary garb fired a volley of shots over the coffin in an apparent show of strength.
The then minister for justice Alan Shatter called the events “reprehensible and absolutely unacceptable”, while Martin Callinan, the then Garda commissioner, said an agreement with those in charge of the funeral was reneged upon.
A Garda source said there would be a “comprehensive policing plan” in place for Vincent Ryan’s funeral, but whether action will be taken in the event of similar scenes will “be down to the operational commander and whatever information they have”.
“We’ll have to see what arises first, but there will be a comprehensive policing plan around it,” he said. “If there’s an intention to have a paramilitary style funeral – and I’m not sure if there is or not – there will a policing operation in place.”
Shootings
The source said he does not expect the security plan to be as intensive as that which was implemented during the recent funerals of David Byrne, who was shot dead in the Regency Hotel, and Edward Hutch who was murdered in his home in Ballybough.
“The security operation around the recent funerals was because of threats among the groups,” he said. “There is an armed presence in Dublin anyway after the recent murders, but it will depend on whatever information we have. I don’t see it as being on the same scale at this stage.”
A postmortem has been carried out on Vincent Ryan’s body but the remains have not yet been released to his family.
There are no funeral arrangements in place at this stage, but detectives expect to learn details of them on Wednesday.
Garda forensic teams have completed their examinations of the scene in Finglas where Ryan was shot dead and the Victoria Bridge area on the Naas to Rathangan Road where the car used in the attack was discovered burned out.
Supt John Quirke of Finglas Garda station has appealed for anyone who was in the McKee Road area between 2pm and 4pm or who saw a silver Volkswagen Golf in the Finglas area before or after the shooting to come forward.
