Celtic and Irish international striker Anthony Stokes was sent a death threat on Twitter, after the soccer player attended a tribute for a murdered IRA boss.

A Twitter user named @gonzo1690 said he hoped the Ulster Volunteer Force, a paramilitary group, would ‘put a bullet’ in the 23-year-old’s head.

He tweeted: “Hope the UVF put a bullet in your head you f****** p****’.

In the same tweet, the user added: “If I ever see you you’re getting smashed ya ****.”

In response Stokes tweeted to his 69,000 plus followers: “Do I need to send this to the police or do they just pick up on it?”

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The Twitter outburst came after Stokes attended a memorial event for murdered Irish gangster Alan Ryan (32)  who was shot in broad daylight last September.

Hundreds of people attended the November 2 memorial for Ryan at the Submarine Bar in Crumlin in which Stokes was pictured beside a female in a gold dress.

The footballer said he was "attending a fundraiser for a family to pay funeral costs".