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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 OmbudsmanEd 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) - Publication of the Oireachtas Report - Download the Final Oireachtas Sub-Committee Report on the murder of Seamus Ludlow from the Oireachtas website (pdf file) - Ludlow family press release in response to the Oireachtas Report

Original Ludlow Family website - Second Ludlow Family website - The Dundalk Bombing


The Irish News, 30 March 2006:

Ludlows dismayed at inquiry decision

 
By Valerie Robinson
Southern Correspondent

Seamus Ludlow: murder victim.Relatives of Co Louth forestry worker Seamus Ludlow have reacted with dismay after an Oireachtas committee failed to recommend a full public inquiry into his murder.

The 47-year-old bachelor, pictured, was shot dead by a loyalist gang on May 2 1976 as he walked home from a pub near Dundalk.

No-one has ever been charged with his murder.

The Republic's Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights last night published recommendations based on hearings held after a probe into the case by former Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Henry Barron.

Mr Justice Henry Barron, who compiled a report on the murder of Seamus Ludlow.Mr Justice Barron was highly critical of the initial Garda investigation, confirming that the RUC had revealed the names of four loyalist suspects to detectives in 1979 but the information was never followed up.

The committee repeated the criticisms and advised the government to launch a fresh inquiry into the original Garda investigation, which lasted less than a month.

A similar inquiry is taking place into how gardai investigated the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings. It is chaired by senior counsel Patrick McEntee, who is understood to have spoken to British intelligence sources and is due to report to the government in May.

"The family of Seamus Ludlow appear to have ben treated in a very unsatisfactory manner by the gardai in the aftermath of the murder. The gardai do not seem to have made any inquiries in Northern Ireland in 1976 or seriously considered the possibility of collusion," the committee said, recommending that a team of gardai be appointed to look at reopening the murder investigation.

Mr Ludlow's nephew Jimmy Shakey said that relatives were disappointed but not surprised that a judicial inquiry was unlikely to take place.

Jimmy Sharkey, nephew of Seamus Ludlow, with a copy of the Barron Report.He said that a probe into the Garda investigations would be a "waste of time and a waste of tax payers' money", accusing the government of using "stalling tactics" to prevent the family getting justice.

Mr Sharkey said they would now cnsult with legal advisors on ways to address a number of concerns, including why the original Garda investigation was wound up after three weeks, why detectives failed to act on RUC information about the four murder suspects and why the RUC failed to act earlier on intelligence about the loyalist gang behind the killing.

He also accused the Irish government of hypocrisy for backing an all-party motion calling on the British government to establish a full, independent and public judicial inquiry into the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, while refusing to hold similar investigations into attacks in the Republic.


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Download the Barron Report on the murder of Seamus Ludlow from the Oireachtas website (pdf file)

Download the Final Oireachtas Sub-Committee Report on the murder of Seamus Ludlow from the Oireachtas website (pdf file)

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Bank of Ireland
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Dundalk
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Copyright © 2006 the Ludlow family. All rights reserved.
Revised: April 17, 2006