A 17-YEAR-OLD boy has been denied bail after gardaí allegedly caught him “digging up” a firearm in connection with feuding crime gangs linked to two murders.

The teenager, who cannot be identified because he is a minor, was arrested on Tuesday night and charged with unlawful possession of a side-by-side double-barrelled shotgun on 7 May at Tolka Valley Park, contrary to the Firearms Act.

Garda Daniel Sweeney this morning told the District Court President, Judge Paul Kelly, that the teenager was intercepted at 9.10pm on Tuesday and “made no reply” when charged at Finglas station last night.

Accompanied to the hearing by his mother, the youth did not address the court and has yet to indicate a plea.

Garda Sweeney furnished the judge with a document outlining objections to bail due to the seriousness of the case.

Defence counsel Doireann McDonagh, instructed by solicitor Simon Fleming, said the teen was seeking bail. Describing the youth as vulnerable, she asked the judge to note the youth’s background difficulties, age, and no prior criminal convictions.

Garda Sweeney told the court: “He was caught red-handed in possession of a firearm; it was a sawn-off shotgun; that’s not for hunting, there is no lawful purpose to have it, it is to seriously harm or kill someone.”

“This related to an ongoing feud,” he said, adding that the boy “associates with one side of two organised crime groups in a feud; he was present when two people were murdered”.

The teen also faced a charge for taking part in violent disorder at the Browne’s Steakhouse, where hitman Tristan Sherry, 26, was killed after he fatally shot Jay Hennessy Sr, 48, in the restaurant on Christmas Eve. That charge was also before the court today.

McDonagh submitted that another teenager accused of murdering Sherry was granted bail with stringent conditions by the Court of Appeal on Tuesday.

She argued that gardaí cited the same bail objections in that case, but they were not accepted.

Judge Kelly noted claims in the bail objections that the teenager “was alone at a location in the process of digging up what turned out to be a double-barrelled shotgun” and that it was allegedly in his possession when caught on Tuesday night.

Bail was refused, and he will appear again next week. A decision on his trial venue has yet to be made. Legal aid was granted.