Innocent family members caught up in a feud were lucky to escape unharmed after their home was targeted in a sinister petrol bomb attack.
The firebombing happened at a house in the Moneymore area of Drogheda, Co Louth, in the early hours of Saturday and is believed to be part of the deadly feud.
The petrol bomb was thrown through a downstairs window at 4.30am while the innocent occupants were asleep.
Read More: Man who cleaned house where Keane Mulready-Woods was butchered under protection after threats
A source said: “They escaped uninjured and managed to extinguish the fire but there was significant damage caused to the sitting room. They were lucky to get out without injuries.”
The feud, which escalated in 2018 when mob boss Owen Maguire was paralysed after he was shot several times, has already claimed four lives, including that of 17-year-old Keane Mulready Woods.
The attack on the innocent family members’ home is understood to have been carried out on the orders of one of the main protagonists of the anti-Maguire faction in revenge over another incident.
“The other incident riled one of the main protagonists and the innocent family were only targeted because they are related to this man’s sworn enemy,” a source said.
The horror incident comes as two brothers who are considered the leaders of the faction at war with associates of paralysed mob boss Maguire are now understood to be based in the UK and are directing their drug debt collecting from there.
They fled the jurisdiction shortly after the murder of teenager Keane as their lives are under threat and have spent time on the run in Spain and Turkey.
Two people – a 47-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman – who were arrested last week in relation to the gun murder of the first feud victim, Keith Branigan, 29, were released without charge and files have now been sent to the DPP.
Mr Branigan became the first fatality in the deadly Drogheda feud when he was shot dead at a caravan park in Clogherhead, Co Louth, on August 27, 2019.
There have since been three more murders linked to the dispute.
