A man has been found guilty of murdering a 35-year-old man outside a pigeon club in Dublin.

Christopher McDonald from East Wall in Dublin was disguised as a woman when he shot Keith Walker in broad daylight in June 2015.

He was handed the mandatory life sentence for his murder this afternoon.

On the evening of June 12th 2015, Keith Walker arrived at the Blanchardstown Pigeon Club in Clonsilla to register some birds for a race on behalf of his friend.

Shortly after arriving at the club, a man dressed as a woman approached him in the car park with a black sub-machine gun.

The court heard he pulled it from a handbag and opened fire - hitting him 18 times in the head and body.

The State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy said many of his vital organs were hit and death would have been rapid.

The weapon used was shown in to the jurors, and described as a Polish made sub-machine gun that was capable of firing in semi or fully automatic mode.

It was later found in a handbag along with a black wig that was dumped in a laneway not far from the scene of the shooting.

McDonald was arrested in Ratoath the following day.

The jury returned with its guilty verdict after just two hours and six minutes of deliberations.

In her victim impact statement, Keith Walker's wife Lorraine said the hardest thing to do was tell their two boys their father was gone.

She said the look on their faces that day will never leave her.

Keith was 35 at the time and they'd been together for 17 years. She said they were childhood sweethearts and described him as her soulmate and best friend.

She said she'll never know how someone could take a man's life in such a way and leave two young boys to grow up without their loving and caring father.

Mr Walker's sister Michelle described her brother as a "proud father and a loving son".

She said their family’s world had been shattered by the unwarranted and shocking manner in which he was killed.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy then handed down the mandatory life sentence.