Revised: February 03, 2008. Cavan Post, 15 January 2008: Justice Denied Belturbet man to meet Taoiseach over brother's controversial murder By Maria Smith A Belturbet man has intensified his demands for a public inquiry into the murder of his brother 32 years ago ahead of a scheduled meeting with the Taoiseach next week. Kevin Ludlow is seeking the truth surrounding the shooting of his brother Seamus on May 2 1976 near Dundalk. The 46-year-old forestry worker was abducted after leaving a pub and taken to Thistlecross, Mountpleasant, where he was shot three times. The Oireachtas Committee report 2006 identified two of the suspected killers as serving members of the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) at the time Mr Ludlow was killed. One of those identified had held the position of Captain. The report found that the name of one suspect was passed by the RUC to the Garda just a few weeks before the murder of Seamus Ludlow. For the Ludlow family this finding opens up the possibility that both police forces may have had some fore warning of the murderous incursion into the Irish Republic. The family want to know why those involved were never brought to justice. "We have a meeting scheduled with Mr Ahern for 10 am on Tuesday. At this meting both ourselves and our legal team, headed by Solicitor James McGuill, will be applying extreme pressure on the Taoiseach to launch an imminent and focused Independent Public Inquiry into the case," Kevin told The Cavan Post. "I stress the word focused as we want the inquiry to look specifically at the findings of the Barron Report (2005) and Jouint Oireachtas Committee Report (2006). We do not want a long drawn out affair that will last for years and cost the taxpayer millions as some of these ongoing tribunals have." "Our objective is and always has been to find out the truth about our brother's murder. We don't want some kind of financial pay-off, we just want the truth which would enable myself, my three sisters and our extended families to achieve some kind of closure on the case after 32 years and so that Seamus can finally rest in peace." Kevin is also scathing about local politicians' ineffectual responses to his family's plight. "I can't count the number of times that I have asked Minister Brendan Smith and Rory O'Hanlon about arranging a meeting with Mr Ahern to discuss establishing an Independent Public Inquiry into the case, but they always seem to be'lookibng into' the issue and nothing concrete ever emerges from this. They never get back to me, so I feel that I am being fobbed off," says Kevin Ludlow. "From the very outset the cover-up commenced," Kevin added. "It was as if a big carpet of subterfuge was created under which the truth about the case could be swept and forgotten about. As a family, we were very badly treated by the gardai and successive governments. The initial murder inquiry was closed down after 1 days and for the following twenty years the IRA were conveniently blamed for the murder. This was of course a purposeful lie, as Seamus was neither an IRA member nor an informer".
I Top I See report from The Irish Times newspaper's website ireland.com headlined AG decision on Ludlow inquiry due. Also: The Argus (Dundalk), 23 January 2008: Family seeking Ludlow inquiry You will find below links to two brief videos on RTE TV News bulletins from today. They don't say much about the meeting with Mr Ahern, but you may like to view them. Click on the appropriate video links on the RTE News pages. RTE 1.pm news, 22 January 2008: I Top I
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