The murder of a rugby captain with one of Ireland’s most prestigious clubs has pushed drug wars in Limerick to the top of the political agenda.

Shane Geoghegan, 28, a player with Garryowen, was shot nine times with a Glock semi-automatic 9mm pistol when he tried to run from his killer hours after watching Ireland beat Canada in his native city.

He was hit three times in the upper body and once in the head, apparently the victim of mistaken identity. A burnt-out getaway vehicle was found nearby.

Limerick is in the grip of a turf war between rival crime families. It has made the city, with a population of only 80,000, one of the most violent places to live in Europe. There have been abductions and cases of torture. The body of one victim had 17 knife wounds – a chilling reminder of Limerick’s nickname “Stab City”. In one incident several people were killed after a fight between children.

The Government is under pressure from opposition parties demanding an emergency parliamentary debate to introduce draconian legislation used in the early years of the foundation of the state to deal with the IRA.

Sixteen people have died this year in violence that was related to a feud involving a hundred hardened members of three rival families.

The violence is concentrated around The Island, a deprived area surrounded on all sides by the River Shannon, which is the centre of operations for all three crime clans.

In recent years the area, where 10,000 people live in public housing, has been flooded with Uzi-armed police after outbreaks of violence.

The Gardai have seized weapons including Desert Eagle handguns, AK-47 assault rifles, rocket launchers and grenades.

Criminal cases have been dropped however, amid fears of witness intimidation. Politicians have despaired of finding a solution as new generations step forward to replace their dead or imprisoned forebears.

Recently police arrested a 14-year-old boy wearing a bullet-proof jacket. He was charged with possession of a sawn-off double-barrel shotgun.

The social networking website Bebo, popular among Irish youngsters, announced that it was blacklisting various Limerick phrases in efforts to suppress feud-related pages.

Now that the violence has claimed a member of an even bigger clan, the dynamic has dramatically changed. Garryowen Football Club is Ireland’s proudest rugby club.

Founded in 1884, the club reflects the working-class roots in Ireland of a sport introduced to the city by the British Army in the days when Limerick was a garrison town in the oldest British colony.

Ireland has been represented at international level by 52 Garryowen players, including Keith Wood, the 2002 World Rugby Player of the Year. So it is little wonder that the principal figures in one of the rival clans were said to have fled Limerick as the city prepares today for one of the biggest funerals to be staged here. A private family wake was held yesterday.

Brian Cowen, the Taoiseach, was briefed by the Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy yesterday on the killing. Dermot Ahern, the Justice Minister, said that Mr Geoghegan had been murdered “by scum”.

Ireland play the All Blacks at Croke Park in Dublin this weekend. It is expected that a minute’s silence will be held for Mr Geoghegan, a thirds captain with Garryowen, and that black armbands will be worn by the national side.

Police sources said that he was an innocent victim who was mistaken for a drug dealer associated with the original drug lords of Limerick.

Eoghan Prendergast, the Garryowen club secretary, said that the family of Mr Geoghegan were numb with shock.

“Shane was such a nice, decent guy who was well respected by young and old alike. He represented the spirit of days gone by because off the pitch he really kept everyone together,” he said.

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