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The Newry Democrat, 10 February 2009:
by Donal O'Reilly
donal.oreilly@newrydemocrat.com
Ludlow family calls for truth
The
Dromintee nephew of a man shot dead by loyalists more than 30 years ago has
accused the British Government of trying to cover up the involvement of serving
soldiers in the murder.
Michael Donegan's uncle, Seamus Ludlow, was killed near his native Dundalk in May 1976 after being last seen trying to to hitch a lift home. In an interview published in a Dublin newspaper in 1998, a man who admitted being present when Mr Ludlow was murdered, apparently after being lured into a car, claimed that the killing had been carried out by members of the Red Hand Commando, two of whom were serving in the UDR at the time.
The man, who was named by the newspaper, was arrested along with three other suspects in 1998 but was not charged.
Mr Donegan told The Democrat that he has little faith that the long running inquiry into the murder being conducted in the Republic will yield any answers, describing it as going nowhere.
However, he pledged that the family will continue to push the British Government for the truth about the alleged involvement of serving soldiers in Mr Ludlow's killing.
To this end, they have asked both the Pat Finucane Centre and SDLP leader Mark Durkan to contact the Ministry of Defence on their behalf. So far they have not received any satisfaction, Mr Donegan explained.
'The Pat Finucane Centre wrote to the Ministry of Defence 12 months ago asking a number of questions about the suspects in my uncle's murder, one of whom was said in a BBC programme to have remained in the army until his retirement years afterward," he said. "We wanted to know if they were aware, as they surely must have ben, that this man was a murder suspect or if he had reported the fact that he had witnessed a murder to his superiors."
"While a couple of holding letters were sent by a representative of the British Army's Northern Ireland headquarters, a definitive response was not received by the Pat Finucane Centre until last month, shortly after Mr Durkan had also interceded on the family's behalf.
According to Mr Donegan, the long-awaited reply was not satisfactory.
"The letter said that they couldn't find any documents other than the ones which had already been made available to the inquiry in the Republic," he explained. "They claimed that a lot of files from that period had been destroyed in accordance with regulations. Well, as far as I can see they're hiding behind these so called regulations. They could still answer the questions we're asking. We're not asking about the murder but they're deliberately missing the point. We're asking them if they were aware that this UDR man was a suspect and if and why he was allowed to stay in the army? This person is presumably getting a pension, they must have personnel files. It's just a smokescreen."
Mr Donegan also criticised the the army for continually referring in correspondence to Mr Ludlow's death rather than his murder.
"It's as if they were saying it was just a death, it was nothing to do with us," he said.
Earlier letters to former Secretaries of State Mo Mowlam and Peter Mandelson, also elicited little more than curt responses from"bureaucrats", Mr Donegan added.
Recalling his uncle, Mr Donegan said that he was a quiet, innocent man who went to work and then home again. Mr Ludlow was also known for his charity work, which included the distribution of toys to under-privileged children in Dundalk at Christmas.
"At the weekend he liked to go out for a drink," Mr Donegan commented. "Sadly that led to his death. But we're not going to give up. They hope that we'll accept a wee pay-off and go away. They think they can pay us £12,000 and everything will be all right. But it's an insult to think this. We don't want money. We want answers."
The Democrat contacted British Army headquarters in Northern Ireland in relation to the matter but had not received a response by the time of going to press.
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Revised: February 21, 2009