Gardaí investigating the murder of a 64-year-old woman in Tallaght on Saturday morning believe her death may be linked to a dispute in which a person known to her had become involved.
Detectives say Mrs Joan Casey, a mother of five, was not the intended victim. They are following a definite line of inquiry and believe they have identified the probable motive.
Officers have ruled out any link to a drugs turf war, as was speculated in some reports yesterday.
They are satisfied that the shooting dead of Mrs Casey in her home in Avonbeg Park at around 6.20 a.m. on Saturday was not linked to organised crime or any form of for-profit criminal activity.
Some reports yesterday suggested a drugs gang had accidentally shot Mrs Casey following a case of mistaken identity. This has been dismissed by gardaí.
Mrs Casey was shot when she got out of bed to investigate noises she heard coming from another area in the house. Two men, at least one of whom was armed with a shotgun, had gained entry to the house.
It is understood the men became aware they had woken somebody. One shot was fired through the door of Mrs Casey's bedroom, fatally wounding her in the chest.
Mrs Casey's husband and brother were in the house at the time. There is no suggestion either man was the intended target.
The alarm was raised when a neighbour of the dead woman saw two men running from Mrs Casey's house on Saturday morning.
According to neighbours, Mrs Casey was a very religious woman and was a eucharistic minister. She was very well respected and her violent death has shocked the local community.
Her murder is the eleventh since the start of the year and the fifth involving firearms. While the number of murders to date in 2004 is slightly down on the same period last year, there were calls last night for the Government to tackle gun crime.
Labour's spokesman on justice, Mr Joe Costello TD, said the killing demonstrated how readily available firearms have become in the State.
A spokesman for the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said the use of firearms would be addressed in the new Garda Bill. He said the Bill would include harsher penalties for people convicted of gun crime.
