Aidan O’Driscoll, who was murdered in the street in Cork city on Wednesday, was closely aligned with former Real IRA leader Alan Ryan who was shot dead in Dublin in 2012.
Gardaí believe Mr O’Driscoll, who moved to Tallaght in Dublin, was then chief of staff of the Real IRA for a time.
However, in a statement issued by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement in 2013, the Real IRA said Mr O’Driscoll had been stood down for “unrepublican activities”.
It is believed he may have siphoned off funds destined for the paramilitary organisation and he was later shot in the legs in a punishment-style shooting in Glen Heights in Cork in 2013.
He never made any complaint to gardaí about the shooting and gardaí believe it may have been carried out by arrangement.
Mr O’Driscoll had been working in recent months as a painter and decorator. He had a number of children.
Mr O’Driscoll, who was nicknamed the Beast, was shot three times by one or possibly two gunmen as he walked along Commons Road, near Blackpool Church, on the north side of Cork city at 5pm on Wednesday.
Not masked
According to Garda sources, two men ran up behind him as he walked along the footpath near Orchard Court on Commons Road and at least one of them fired at him. Gardaí do not believe the men were masked.
Mr O’Driscoll was taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery for gunshot wounds to his lower back and kidneys, but he died just before 7pm.
From Glen Heights in Ballyvolane in Cork, Mr O’Driscoll was convicted of Real IRA membership in 2006 and sentenced to three years in jail but his conviction was later overturned.
He was convicted along with Ciaran Kiwi O’Dwyer and Ultan Larkin from Limerick and John Murphy from Kilbarry and Gerard Varian from Fairhill in Cork, but all their convictions were later overturned.
People in the Commons Road area of Cork heard the shots, but did not realise what was happening.
One woman living in Blackpool said she heard a sudden bang followed quickly by two other equally loud bangs.
“I thought first it might be someone setting off a firecracker – there was one very loud bang and then there were two more and then we learned that somebody had been shot – it’s shocking.”
