Editing Sean O'Callaghan (section)

==Disputed claims of O'Callaghan's accounts==
Sources in Sinn Féin have publicly denied aspects of the statements made by O'Callaghan with regard to his IRA career, particularly the claim that he had attained the leadership of the IRA's Southern Command, and had been a delegate to the [[IRA Army Council]], claims O'Callaghan made both in print and before a Dublin jury under oath. A 1997 article in ''[[An Phoblacht]]'' alleged that O'Callaghan "has been forced to overstate his importance in the IRA, and to make increasingly outlandish accusations against individual republicans".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://republican-news.org/archive/1997/March06/06tout.html|title=O'Callaghan - the truth|newspaper=[[An Phoblacht]]|access-date=24 August 2017|date=27 February 1997}}</ref>

O'Callaghan also claimed to have attended an IRA finance meeting in [[Letterkenny]] in 1980 with, among others, lawyer [[Pat Finucane]] and [[Sinn Féin]] politician [[Gerry Adams]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2003/04/18/do1801.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2003/04/18/ixop.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080416033643/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fopinion%2F2003%2F04%2F18%2Fdo1801.xml&sSheet=%2Fopinion%2F2003%2F04%2F18%2Fixop.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 April 2008|title=Opinion|newspaper=[[Daily Telegraph]]|access-date=24 August 2017|date=18 April 2003}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/21st-october-2000/20/the-terrorists-brief|title=The Terrorist's Brief|date=21 October 2000|website=The Spectator|access-date=6 January 2021}}</ref> Following his death at the hands of Loyalist paramilitaries, Finucane's family denied that he had been a member of the IRA, and the organisation did not claim or memorialise him as a member after the event. The RUC and the [[Stevens Report]] indicated that, to their knowledge he was not believed to have been an IRA member, although he came from an Irish Republican background and three of his brothers (Dermot, John, and Seamus) had been involved in paramilitarism.<ref>{{cite web | title=Wikileaks cable describes legacy of distrust left by Finucane killing | newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=13 December 2010 |url= https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/dec/13/wikileaks-legacy-distrust-finucane-killing | author= Owen Bowcott}}</ref> Adams repeatedly stated that, although associated closely with Irish Republican politics, he had never been a member of the IRA.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/2288775.stm|title=Adams denies IRA book allegations|website=[[BBC News]]|access-date=24 August 2017|date=22 September 2002}}</ref>

While O'Callaghan claimed to have quit being an informant after being disillusioned by the murder of Sean Corcoran, there remains suspicion that O'Callaghan may have been the perpetrator of Corcoran's death.  O'Callaghan once claimed that the IRA had ordered him to kill Corcoran and that he did so to protect his cover, but he later repudiated this claim, stating he had only admitted to the murder to trigger a police investigation.<ref>{{Citation| title = Murderer served IRA and Garda but mostly himself | newspaper = [[The Irish Times]]| date = 8 January 1997 | access-date=29 June 2019 | url= https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/murderer-served-ira-and-garda-but-mostly-himself-1.19950 | author= Vincent Browne}}</ref><ref>{{Citation| title = Sean O'Callaghan, IRA assassin turned informant, dies at 62 | newspaper = [[The Washington Post]]| date = 25 August 2017 |  access-date=29 June 2019 | url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/sean-ocallaghan-ira-assassin-turned-informant-dies-at-62/2017/08/25/32f3dc06-88da-11e7-a94f-3139abce39f5_story.html | author= Harrison Smith}}</ref>