SHARON TOOK A BULLET FOR HER MOBSTER LOVER

THIS is the loving couple who were the victims of gangland's latest bloody outrage.

Arm in arm, Sharon Rattigan (26) and boyfriend Shay O'Byrne (27), smile for the camera as they enjoy a night out with family and friends. But on Friday night O'Byrne, a major player in one of Dublin's most dangerous crime gangs, was shot three times in the
back and killed outside a house in Tymon North in Tallaght.

His gutsy girlfriend was lucky to escape with her life as she put up a ferocious fight to save her lover.



GANGLAND HIT: The scene of O’Byrne’s death

Despite being shot in the leg during the attack, Sharon Rattigan is understood to have disarmed the gunman and thrown his revolver into her boyfriend's car. Gardai are currently examining the weapon. She also pulled off his balaclava and scratched his face, which may now provide vital DNA evidence in helping cops catch the killer.

Traumatised

However, the traumatised young woman, who had been living with her boyfriend for several years, checked herself out of hospital yesterday morning and has not spoken to detectives.

Last night three men were still being questioned by gardai after they were arrested in Crumlin a short time after the attack, which took place around 8.20pm. Gardai have also asked the public for help in tracing two suspect cars which they believe were used in the murder - a silver colour Nissan Primera with a partial registration number of 00 D and a sky blue Volkswagen Passat with a partial reg number of 06 WW.

Both cars were seen in the Tymon North Gardens area at the time of the shooting. O'Byrne's murder is the most serious escalation
in the blood feud between the two warring drug gangs in Drimnagh and Crumlin in south Dublin, which has now claimed 12 lives.



THUG: Fat Freddie Thompson

In recent months there had been an uneasy peace between the two sides that have been killing, shooting and bombing each other since 2000. But in the past few weeks a number of thugs associated with the Fat Freddie Thompson gang have been responsible for a number of gun attacks on houses in the Crumlin and Drimnagh areas.

Extra armed gardai under the umbrella of Operation Anvil were drafted into the area to back up local units amid fears that warfare was about to erupt again. In that operation, detectives from Crumlin seized a lethal pumpaction shotgun which fired solid shot cartridges similar to ones used by the ERU to punch holes in engine blocks.

One of the young thugs behind the recent escalation is aged just 21 and suitably nicknamed 'Mad Dog'. One of the men arrested in connection with the O'Byrne murder is understood to be a close associate of this out-of-control psychopath.

It is understood that as the shooting incidents grew more frequent - there were nine incidents in just over two weeks - members of the Thompson side of the feud decided to hit a major player on the other side.

Shay O'Byrne,who had no serious criminal convictions, was one of the senior players in the gang which has been warring with the
Thompson mob. Gardai arrested him for questioning in relation to a murder attempt on the life of 'Canal Butcher' Mark Desmond three years ago.

Originally from Lansdowne Valley Park in Drimnagh, he organised the gang's huge drug business. He is the eighth gangland murder victim so far this year.

Shootings

Last night extra garda patrols were mobilised on the streets of the working-class suburbs which have witnessed hundreds of shootings and scores of bomb incidents in the past eight years. It had been hoped that the two sides had grown tired of trying to kill and maim each other as a fragile peace emerged in recent months.

But they keep producing younger, even more ruthless thugs, who are ready to throw their weight around. In gangland terms the Crumlin and Drimnagh gangs are now connected with practically every other drug gang in the greater Dublin area.

Friday night's murder has guaranteed that there is little hope of peace on the streets of south Dublin.