Four homes on Dublin street targeted in petrol bomb attacks linked to local feud

The attacks happened at 2am on Monday on Margaret Kennedy Road in the capital’s south inner city.

No one was injured in the incidents and there has been no arrests in the case which is being investigated by Kevin Street gardai.

Three properties suffered damage to the front of the houses while in the fourth home that was targeted, the bomb failed to explode and the petrol bomb was discarded at the scene before the perpetrators fled the scene.

Two sets of neighbouring houses were targeted in the attacks and sources say that innocent people live in these properties.

The attacks are being linked to a local feud in the locality which has been ongoing for around a year and centres around a bitter dispute among groupings of reckless young criminals in the south inner city.

“Thankfully no one was injured in these incidents but there can be no doubt that was a scary situation for the residents’ to wake up to at that hour of the morning,” a source said.

The bomb attacks are the most serious incident to happen on Margaret Kennedy Road since a daylight gun attack on Wednesday, January 19, last when several shots were fired at two men in a vehicle at 11.45am.

On that occasion, Gardai rushed to the scene and found that while there were no injuries reported, those involved in the shooting had already fled in a car.

In a follow-up operation, a very close associate of convicted Kinahan cartel killer 'Fat' Freddie Thompson was arrested and questioned before being released without charge by officers investigating the shooting.

Thompson’s associate was identified as the shooter while another man, believed to have been his getaway driver, was also arrested.

In total three people were arrested in relation to that shooting and a file is being prepared for the DPP by gardai.

Gardai are investigating if pals of ‘Fat’ Freddie’s close associate were involved in Monday morning’s petrol bomb incidents.

In June of last year, armed gardai raided an address on Margaret Kennedy Road as part of an investigation into a shocking incident in which a young child and at least two women including a grandmother had a lucky escape when shots were fired at them at nearby Darely’s Terrace.

Officers did not recover a firearm but managed to find a small quantity of drugs on that occasion.

Tensions have been high in the locality and the Armed Support Unit have been patrolling the south central garda division on a regular basis.

In April of last year, three shots from a handgun were discharged towards at least three people who were standing in the garden of the property at Margaret Kennedy Road.

The petrol bomb attacks are not linked to the discovery of a suspicious device on the other side of the city last night.

The bomb disposal squad rushed to the scene where the alarm was raised when gardai received reports of a device at Schoolhouse Lane, Santry.

The device was found to be non-viable after an examination by army experts.