The Barron Inquiry - Draft Terms of Reference for Inquiry - A Fresh Inquest - 2005 Inquest Account - BIRW Report - Witness Account - Ludlow Family Account - Sunday World report May 1976 - Meeting the Police Ombudsman - Ed Moloney Radio Interview - 25th Anniversary - Profile - Questions - Photographs - Press Release - Letter to RUC - Magill article 1999 - Press Coverage - Barron Report Published - Ludlow Family Response to Barron Report - Download the Barron Report from the Oireachtas website (pdf file) - Statement from Justice for the Forgotten - Joint Oireachtas Committee Request for Submissions - Joint statement from Justice for the Forgotten, Relatives for Justice and the Pat Finucane Centre - Download Transcript of Ludlow family meeting with Oireachtas Sub-Committee (Word file)
Original Ludlow Family website - Second Ludlow Family website - The Dundalk Bombing
The Irish News, 25 January 2006:
Ludlows stand by inquiry demand
The family of the murdered Dundalk forestry worker Seamus Ludlow yesterday repeated demands for an independent public inquiry into his death.
Relatives appeared before the Oireachtas Justice Sub-Committee which has begun hearings into last November's report by Mr Justice Henry Barron into the 1976 killing.
Mr Ludlow (47), who the Barron report said had no links to paramilitary groups, was shot dead on May 2 1976 as he returned home from a night out.
Mr Ludlow's nephew Jimmy Sharkey yesterday told the all-party body: "The Barron report left a lot of unanswered questions. The forum for these to be addressed is an independent public inquiry.
"It is the bottom line for us. Nothing less. Nothing more."
Mr Ludlow's brother Kevin, said the family had still not received any apology from gardai who investigated the case.
"It is a shame to think of the way the Garda acted. We were treated very badly. Nothing only lies from the gardai," he said.
The Barron report said that the RUC told gardai in 1979 that it believed four named loyalists were involved in his killing, but this information was not pursued by the Garda at the time.
Mr Ludlow said the Garda blamed the IRA for the crime at the time.
"We shouldn't have to go throgh all of this for 30 years. It wasn't fair what was done to us," he said.
"They were covering up the whole thing all the time".
Mr Ludlow added: "They never even said they were sorry for anything. That hasn't come. Will it ever come?"
Labour justice spokesman Joe costello said to the family: "We know how difficult it must be to come here to reopen all these old wounds."
Family solicitor James McGuill said: "This has been an appalling three decades of experience of how an ordinary law-abiding family found themselves in a set of life-changing circumstances which was compounded by the state authorities they had to deal with."
Backing a public inquiry, a UK watchdog on human rights claimed informal investigations are often blocked by missing doocuments.
"Many papers came to light in the Bloody Sunday inquiry which had previously not seen the light of day," British Irish Rights Watch spokeswoman Jane Winter said.
Ms Winter told the Oireachtas committee that the botched investigation into the Ludlow murder shattered the trust in the system of other people who lost loved ones.
"It should not be for families to instigate a proper investigation when somebody is murdered," she said.
"It is absolutely the duty of the state to ensure that in each and every case there is a proper investigation."
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Revised: February 03, 2006