MURDER victim Danny McClean's funeral has taken place in west Belfast with just close family and friends present.
The 54-year-old's cortège left his partner's home close to the Monagh bypass today and made its way to nearby St Teresa's Church on the Glen Road.
Draped in an Irish tricolour, the coffin was carried by his two daughters, with the funeral carried out in line with current Covid guidance.
Parish priest Fr Gabriel Lyons told mourners "We are here because someone made decisions about Danny that none of his loved ones, that you, didn't want for him.
“But your lives have been rewritten. I am not sure how I would react to that violence, but I know that it does not serve any purpose.”
The victim's daughter Emma also read out a short tribute saying "I hope we done you proud today as you made us proud to call you our daddy".
McClean was shot several times as he sat in a parked car on the Cliftonville Road in north Belfast on Tuesday, February 2.
Originally from Andersonstown, he had been due to appear in court this week on four paramilitary-related charges.
All charges of possessing information likely to be of use to terrorists and possession of a handgun and ammunition were formally quashed at Belfast Crown Court on Wednesday.
The father-of-two, who previously served in the British army, was convicted of terror offences linked to the organisation Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH), in January 2019.
He had been under threat from former associates since then and had been living in an apartment close to Lisburn. However after his car was vandalised he moved to temporary housing in north Belfast.
The same gunman responsible for murdering McClean is also believed to have been behind the murder of Kieran Wylie, who was shot dead at his Lenadoon home in west Belfast last May.
Three men arrested in connection with the murder have all been released without charge.
