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The
Ludlow Family Invites You To Support its Demand For Public Inquiries into
the Murder by a British Army UDR and Loyalist Red Hand Commando murder gang of an
innocent Irishman near his Dundalk, County Louth, home, on 2 May 1976. This
page is a brief review of this case to date. More detailed information about
these issues can be found in the Ludlow family's original web
site.
Above
(left and right): These are photographs of the late Seamus Ludlow, aged 47 years,
of Thistlecross, Mountpleasant, Dundalk, north County Louth, in the Irish
Republic. A Catholic bachelor, employed as a forestry worker, Seamus
lived with his elderly mother, Mrs. Annie
Ludlow, in his lifelong home
in County Louth, along with a married sister, Mrs.
Nan Sharkey, her husband John, now deceased, and their family.
Seamus
Ludlow was abducted
and murdered by armed Loyalists and British
soldiers outside the town of Dundalk on the night of 1st. and 2nd.
May 1976. He was last seen thumbing a lift home from the pub, the Lisdoo
Arms, at
around midnight just minutes before he disappeared. Despite false
claims, that were encouraged by the Irish Gardai, that
Seamus Ludlow had been murdered by the IRA because he was an
informer, it is now known that both the Gardai and the Royal Ulster
Constabulary (RUC) in the North of Ireland were aware at least in 1977,
if not even earlier, that the killers were in fact Loyalists. South
of the border the Gardai abandoned their murder investigation after only 19
days, without ever informing the Ludlow family, who were repeatedly told that
the case file remained open. (In
fact, on 4 March 2002, the Ludlow family was informed by the Police Ombudsman of
Northern Ireland that the loyalist killers were known to the RUC as early as
1977, but they did not pass the information on to the Gardai until 1979 and
there are no reports that the RUC did anything with this information before
passing it to the Gardai.) They knew
that they included at least two locally recruited
members of the British Army. They spent the next twenty years
protecting these killers, and casting a terrible slur on the memory of
the innocent victim and his family. Lies about
Seamus Ludlow, citing him as an informer for British Intelligence who was
murdered by the IRA have appeared in at least two books that were written by
British journalists as propaganda for the British Army's notorious Special Air
Service (SAS) regiment. The Loyalist killers all came from the Comber and
Newtownards areas of north Down. Information which would
have identified these killers was suppressed for more
than 20 years, allowing these men to remain free and at
liberty to kill again. Why were these men being
protected? Why were they above the law? Why was Seamus Ludlow so
expendable? Will the authorities ever come clean and admit to their
disgraceful responsibility in this matter?
Below: This is a photograph
of the simple memorial sited at the location of Seamus
Ludlow's murder. This is located north of Dundalk, in a narrow lane off the
Bog Road, near Ballymascanlan Hotel and Proleek Dolmen, and less than half a
mile from the victim's lifelong residence at Thistle Cross. A close-up of the
memorial The simple
inscription reads: "In loving memory of Seamus
Ludlow Cruelly murdered by UDR and Red Hand Commando
links on 2nd May 1976 RIP". An earlier memorial, placed there
several years ago, was replaced during 1999. Four Loyalists
were arrested by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in February 1998.
Three were arrested at their homes in north Down, and a fourth in
Staffordshire, England. All four were taken to the Castlereagh
Interrogation Centre for questioning. They were all released without charge, pending an investigation report
being sent to the Northern Ireland Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). On 15 October 1999, the DPP ruled that none of the
suspects would be charged with any offence, even though
two of them have signed incriminating statements while in
RUC custody.
Photographed at bottom right is Paul Hosking,
who has spoken to the RUC, and to journalists, about his
involvement as a witness to the crime. A major article in the
Dublin Sunday Tribune newspaper of 8 March
1998, features an
interview with Mr. Hosking, conducted by journalist Ed Moloney.
This article gives a full account of Mr. Hosking's recollections of
the murder of Seamus Ludlow. The others
involved in the murder of Seamus Ludlow are
described as two former members of the illegal Red Hand Commando death squad
who were also members of the British
Army's Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR). One of these men was a captain in that
discredited force, which is now known as the Royal Irish Regiment (RIR). The third
man, known as Mambo,
is also described as a Red Hand Commando figure who may
also have been an agent for some branch of the British
forces. A photograph of Seanus Ludlow's alleged killer has recently
appeared in the book "The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings and the
Murder Triangle", by journalist Joe Tiernan. It was Joe Tiernan who
had originally approached the Ludlow family with new information, about
the gardai cover-up, in 1996. It is claimed that the
cross-border RUC/Gardai/British Army cover-up that followed the murder
of Seamus Ludlow was inspired to
protect this man Mambo who is alleged to be the actual killer
of Seamus Ludlow.
The Ludlow
family wants to know why Seamus Ludlow's name
was smeared by the authorities and why his killers were
never brought to justice by the Gardai or by the RUC, who
had identified them many years ago. They demand full
truth and justice for an innocent victim who never
received either from the authorities in the past. The
Ludlow family wants to know who gave the orders for the cover-up
of the evidence and the smearing of the victim. Who was
being protected, and why? Why was the Ludlow family excluded from
their loved-one's inquest on 19th. August 1976? Will those individuals responsible for the abuses of authority in this case ever
be brought to account for their actions? In
a recent advance for the Ludlow family, the Irish Attorney General
Rory Brady TD has directed the coroner for County Louth to hold a fresh
inquest into the death of Seamus Ludlow. It is hoped that this
inquest will undo some of the wrongs that were committed at that
flawed inquest in August 1976. The Ludlow
family is supported in their demands by several distinguished human
rights groups. British Irish Rights
Watch (BIRW);
the Irish
Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL); Amnesty International; Relatives for Justice; and the Pat Finucane Centre,
the Celtic League, the South Armagh
Farmers and Residents Committee, and a large number of local
and national politicians on both sides of the border and
in Britain support the Ludlow family. BIRW have compiled an independent Report
on
the murder of Seamus Ludlow, in which they support the
Ludlow family's demands for truth and justice. The BIRW
report has been circulated to the Irish and British
authorities.
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I Page last updated: 12/03/05 09:48:13
Copyright © 2003 the Ludlow family. All rights reserved.
A Brief Review:
The Seamus
Ludlow Truth and Justice Campaign.
and its inscription can be seen at the top of this page.
Left:
This
graphic appeared on the Ulster Television current affairs
programme UTV Live Insight on 25 October 1999. The
figures represent the four loyalists who are alleged to
have been involved in the murder of Seamus Ludlow. Their names are
all known to the Ludlow family.
Left:
In
this photograph members of the Ludlow family are holding
a press conference at Buswell's Hotel, in Dublin, on 18th.
February 1999. Jane Winter, Director of British Irish rights Watch
(BIRW), London, came
to Ireland that morning to launch her independent report on the death
of Seamus Ludlow. The Ludlow family has demanded public
inquiries on both sides of the border to uncover exactly why Seamus Ludlow's murder was never properly
investigated. BIRW supports that demand. Jane Winter has sent a
further message of support to this site.
In
this photograph, Kevin Ludlow, the only
surviving brother of Seamus Ludlow, can be seen with his
nephew Jimmy Sharkey. Together they have led the Ludlow
family's campaign for truth and justice for many years.
Thank You.
Revised: March 12, 2005 .