The Five Demands

Real IRA leader’s brother on gun charge (UTV)

The brother of murdered Real IRA leader Alan Ryan, arrested over a show of strength at his funeral, has been charged with carrying guns on the day a notorious drug lord was shot dead last year.
Vincent Ryan, 22 and from Donaghmede, was among those held by gardaí in connection with the paramilitary trappings at his brother’s funeral in Dublin on Saturday 8 September.

He appeared before the city’s non-jury Special Criminal Court on Friday – alongside 23-year-old co-accused Darragh Evans from Raheny – over possession of an assault rifle and revolver in 2011.

Both men – and a third, 33-year-old Nathan Kinsella from Dublin – have already recently been charged with membership of an unlawful organisation, styling itself as the Irish Republican Army.

On the day Ryan and Evans are alleged to have been in possession of the weapons, 30-year-old Michael ‘The Panda’ Kelly was shot dead in broad daylight in the Clongriffin area of north Dublin.

He was a suspect in a number of gruesome murders and, before his killing on 15 September last year, was allegedly one of the biggest gangsters in the Irish capital.

There was no application for bail by Ryan, Evans or Kinsella and they were all remanded in custody until 3 October.

Ryan was seen smirking throughout proceedings, before supporters applauded as the men were escorted out of the courtroom.

Real IRA leader Alan Ryan, a convicted racketeer, was gunned down in Donaghmede on 3 September this year.

One line of enquiry in the police investigation is understood to be that Ryan’s murder was revenge over Kelly’s death.