Watch: Shots fired over coffin of IRA hitman ahead of funeral

Masked men fired shots over the coffin of IRA hitman Gerard ‘Hucker’ Moyna ahead of his funeral today.
Moyna, linked to several murders — including Shankill Butcher Lenny Murphy – died last month aged 69.

A video has been circulating on social media of Moyna’s coffin draped in a tricolour, placed in the street close to his home.

A large photograph of the once feared republican is also on display.

Three masked men with hoods pulled up stand behind the coffin, while one raises a handgun in the air and fires three shots.

Moyna, from Bombay Street in west Belfast, is to be buried in Milltown cemetery following requiem mass in St Paul’s church on Thursday.

A former hitman, he had been one of two IRA men who shot and killed serial killer Murphy in 1982.

He was also involved in the killing of solicitor and unionist politician Edgar Graham, who was murdered by the IRA outside Queen’s University in 1983.

He later fell from favour with the IRA and joined the IPLO. He was involved in a feud within the organisation, during which he shot dead their spokesperson Jimmy Brown in August 1982.

While a member of the IPLO, Moyna murdered Henry Ward in the Diamond Jubilee Bar on the Shankill Road on October 10, 1991. A number of other people were injured in the attack.

In later life he was briefly linked to the Continuity IRA and suffered an eye injury and lost three fingers when a bomb exploded prematurely in transit on College Avenue. When the RUC arrived at the scene they found blood, scorch marks and bomb components. The detonators had gone off injuring Moyna, but the main Semtex charge had not.

Despite parting ways from the IRA in the 1990s, his funeral has been organised by former IRA prisoners from the Lower Falls, who operate independently from the National Graves Association who are aligned to the mainstream republican movement.