Family on hunger strike after shooting
The family of a Finglas man gunned down in front of his eight-year-old stepson are to go on hunger strike in their fight for justice.
Five of Lee Kinsella’s 12 siblings are to begin their protest on Thursday.
They hope their determination will lead to his killers being caught and toughen gun and bail laws.
Lee, 30, was killed when shots were fired through the front window of his home on Rathoath Avenue on May 8.
He saved the life of his stepson Ryan Joyce by throwing him behind a chair out of the line of bullets. The heartbroken youngster is currently being counselled.
Despite three arrests, no-one has ever been charged in relation to the killing.
The Kinsella family believe they know who shot their brother, claiming those responsible were on bail for serious offences at the time.
“We feel so strongly about this that we are willing to do anything,” said his sister Donna. “We will go on hunger strike and keep going until we have justice.”
The remaining siblings are also prepared to join the protest.
The family allege the shooting relates to an altercation between Lee and a local gang of youths about 18 months before his killing.
They claim the gang crashed a stolen car in to a parked car he and Ryan were in, and when Lee shouted at them they attacked him with batons and threatened to shoot him.
Donna, 37, from Tallaght, said the same group attacked him a second time and shot at him, but that Lee escaped with minor injuries. She claims he later dropped all charges when they agreed to call a truce.
“The day Lee was shot he was helping his brother Henry in the garden of our family home,” said Donna. “He had only gone home for a few minutes when Henry heard gun shots and ran down the road.
“He kept telling Lee to hold on, that an ambulance was coming, but Lee died in his arms.”
“He was a fantastic father to Ryan and was a lovely man,” she said.
“Ryan was Lee’s son, he washed him, fed him and cared for him as a child. Ryan called him dad.
“His death has really affected him. He can’t sleep, he has become aggressive and is scared when he hears noises in the house.”
Lee – who came from a family of 13 – helped care for his elderly parents Larry and Angela who died nine months apart in 2003 and 2004. The family grew up in a two-bedroomed terraced house on Abbotstown Drive, just around the corner from the fatal shooting.
Donna said their death’s affected the close-knit family badly, particularly Lee.
The family denied reports Lee was going through rehabilitation for drug addiction or that his death was drugs related or a gangland killing.
“There is a big hole with our brother gone,” Henry, 36, added. “He was the nicest brother you could ever want. He would do anything for anybody. A true gentleman.”
The family today took their fight to the Department of Justice.
They marched from O’Connell Street before handing over a petition with 7,500 signatures calling for changes to bail laws and tougher gun laws.
“The people who we believe killed Lee were out on bail at the time of the incident,” said Donna. “If they had been in prison the argument would never have happened and he wouldn’t have been shot. We want to clear Lee’s name and get justice for him.”
Lee’s partner Pamela Joyce paid tribute to the man who she met when her son was just a baby.
“He was my whole world, we did everything together,” she said. “He gave me a life and Ryan a father.
