Lotto millionaire's relative fights for life after shooting
Gardai pictured at the scene of the shooting in Southill, Limerick. Photo: Press 22.
Thursday October 29 2009
A 27-YEAR-OLD criminal was fighting for his life last night after he was shot in Limerick city.
Michael Lynch from O'Malley Park, Southill, Limerick, who is the father of Euro Millions winner Dolores McNamara's grandson, was in a critical condition in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital last night after the early morning shooting.
It is believed that Lynch was targeted by a 48-year-old man from the southside of the city following a row outside a home at O'Malley Park, Southill, yesterday morning.
Both the victim and suspected assailant know each other.
It is understood that the assailant had been arguing with a relative of Lynch before he opened fire on the victim with a low-calibre handgun at around 8am.
Lynch suffered gunshot wounds to the liver and kidney areas and was rushed to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, where he was said to be in "critical condition" last night.
The latest shooting in the southside suburb took place less than 24 hours after President Mary McAleese visited Southill and officially opened the community's area centre.
Gardai arrested the suspected gunman and were questioning him last night in Roxboro garda station. The suspect is being held under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act 2007 and can be held for a maximum of seven days, after which officers must charge or release him.
He is well-known to gardai from previous criminal investigations and has several convictions for assault. The Limerick criminal has also survived numerous gun attacks on his life. Officers were last night combing the O'Malley Park area for the firearm used in yesterday's shooting.
Vacant houses and properties belonging to relatives of the suspected gunman were raided and searched by gardai yesterday. The hunt for the weapon continued last night.
The 20-year-old daughter of the suspected gunman was arrested shortly after the shooting for public order offences and she remained in custody last night.
It is understood that associates of the injured man and the assailant's family are involved in a long-running dispute which has been blamed for yesterday's shooting. A shooting incident which took place last month in Sixmilebridge, Co Clare, is also believed to be linked to the feud.
At that time, a young woman aged in her 20s received minor injuries to a leg when she was targeted by a gunman on September 21 last in the Clare village. Supt Ann Marie McMahon of Roxboro garda station appealed for anyone who was in the O'Malley Park area at the time of the shooting and saw anything suspicious to contact gardai.
Earlier this year, Michael Lynch sold a story on the family of Euro Millions winner, Dolores McNamara, who won €115m in July 2005, to a tabloid newspaper. He had previously been in an eight-year relationship with Dolores's daughter, Kevanne (24), and the pair have a seven-year-old son.
Drugs
The couple split in 2006. Lynch, who admitted to living on the streets in the past, has previous convictions for drugs and public order offences.
In his interview last January, Lynch criticised the "meanness" of Dolores after he got a 2001-registered Toyota Corolla worth €10,000, as opposed to a BMW which he claimed Kevanne promised him.
Dolores had paid an unemployed Lynch €100 a day to paint her €1.7m mansion, 'Lough Derg Hall' in east Clare.
It is understood that relations between the McNamara family and yesterday's shooting victim became extremely strained following the tabloid interview.
- Barry Duggan
Irish Independent
