Dissident republican Declan Smith dies a week after Dublin gun attack
A Belfast man with known dissident republican links has died a week after he was shot in a Dublin gun attack.
Declan Smith, 32, was shot in the face by a lone gunman as he dropped his child at a crèche on Holywell Avenue, Donaghmede, last Friday.
He died in hospital overnight. Police in Dublin had previously warned him that his life was in danger.
He was wanted by police in Northern Ireland for questioning about the murder of two men in Belfast in 2007.
Mr Smith was originally from west Belfast but had moved to live in north Dublin.
He once had links to the dissident republican group the Continuity IRA but more recently he had been connected to the Real IRA, and was known to the police forces on both sides of the border.
He was an associate of the Real IRA leader, Alan Ryan, who was shot dead in north Dublin in September 2012.
Mr Smith had been shot on a previous occasion, as part of an internal dissident republican feud that was believed to have been about the proceeds of extortion.
Eyewitnesses to last Friday's gun attack said that the victim pleaded with the gunman not to shoot him, but to no avail.
He was taken to Dublin's Beaumont Hospital in a critical condition and did not recover from his injuries.
It is understood the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) had wanted to question Mr Smith about the murders of Edward Burns and Joseph Jones in Belfast on the same night in March 2007.