The init.d script installed along with =app-misc/lirc-0.8.6-r2 lacks at least depend on localmount, which causes it to be started too early on some configurations. Additionally, as lircd relies on particular kernel modules, it should 'use modules' too.
Created attachment 227283 [details, diff] Patch with (minimal) necessary changes to the script
*** Bug 314547 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Added in lirc-0.8.6-r3, thanks