Allegations retracted over IRA man's death

Allegations that an IRA man shot dead in South Armagh was killed with his own weapon during a dispute over land have been retracted.

Keith Rodgers was killed and another man was wounded in a clash between groups of men on the forecourt of a filling station at Culloville on March 12.

Patrick O’Callaghan, whose brother was also injured in the confrontation, claimed immediately afterwards that it had arisen out of a dispute over the purchase of land on the southern side of the border and that he had been warned by the IRA he would be shot if he had anything to do with building houses on the land.

He also said Rodgers was armed and he and the wounded man had been shot with their own weapons.

Two days later veteran republican Brian Keenan denounced Mr O’Callaghan in a grave-side oration at the IRA man’s funeral.