Abbeylara chairman rules out fifth bullet theory

The chairman of the Abbeylara Tribunal has formally ruled out the possibility that John Carthy may have been hit by a fifth bullet fired by a garda who was not a member of the armed Emergency Response Unit.

The finding was Justice Robert Barr’s latest attempt to defuse a row between himself and the Gardaí involved in the operation that led to Mr Carthy being shot dead following a 24-hour siege at his home in Abbeylara, Co Longford, in April 2000.