OPPOSITION parties yesterday lambasted Michael McDowell for telling the gardai to “get lucky” in their fight against gun crime.

The remark follows a particularly bloody spell. In the space of 24 hours a young postmaster was shot dead by an armed raider in Kilkenny, there were two overnight shootings and a man died from injuries sustained in an earlier beating.

The justice minister, who two years ago called killings by gangs as the “sting of a dying wasp”, says he won’t get impatient with the gardai for not achieving better results. Speaking on RTE radio yesterday, McDowell said: “I mean (the gardai) have to get lucky, obviously, and there is no point in a political person with responsibility for the gardai getting impatient that they aren’t lucky.”

The opposition was quick to seize on the remarks. Senator Brian Hayes of Fine Gael said: “It is absolutely extraordinary to hear the justice minister, the day after a young postmaster was gunned down and Dublin was the scene of two more shootings, say that in dealing with criminals, ‘the guards have to get lucky’. If that is his solution for tackling gangland criminals and drug lords, then it is no wonder they seem to be in control.”

Joan Burton of Labour said gun crime was out of control. “The situation is very serious. There seems to be a tone from the minister that if it’s gun crime involving criminals, well it doesn’t matter if they shoot each other. I’ve never seen the amount of drugs on the west side of Dublin and visited so many grieving families.”

The killing of Alan Cunniffe, 31, in Kilkenny was the 21st gun death this year, equalling all killings by firearms in 2005. Since his death there have been two further shootings in Dublin, which left two men hospitalised.

The Dublin attacks are believed to be the result of personal disputes and were described by McDowell as “underworld violent thuggery”.

Gardai at Kevin Street have launched a murder investigation after a man died of injuries he sustained in a “brutal and savage” assault in Inchicore, west Dublin, last weekend.

Despite a recent gun amnesty, the use of firearms is becoming more commonplace. McDowell has been forced to row back on his 2004 claim that Ireland was experiencing the “last sting of a dying wasp” in relation to gangland crime. There has been a record number of underworld killings since then.

“There is no doubt that the drug gangs in Dublin are settling their scores, debts and boundaries by the vicious use of murder, and they have brought significant arsenals of hand weapons and sometimes machineguns with silencers into the city,” McDowell said yesterday.

“This is not a pretty picture and the gardai have a very definite determination to get at them. They are having significant successes and seizures of both weapons and drugs, but you are dealing with ruthless people, half of them coked up half the time, and they are ruthless in their methods.”

Cunniffe, who took over the running of the family business from his retired mother Muriel last week, was shot as he gave chase to a lone armed raider who had held up his post office. Although there has been a series of robberies of post offices recently and several employees have been injured, he is the first postmaster to be killed.

A Chinese national was arrested shortly afterwards and a handgun and a quantity of cash recovered.

The man, who was claiming asylum after a student visa expired in 2004, was being held at Kilkenny garda station last night.

Many of the 21 gun killings this year were the result of gangland feuds and two women were among those shot dead.

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