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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 Argus (Dundalk), 5 April 2006:

Final report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the murder of Seamus Ludlow

Committee's deep concern over missing documents

 

Seamus Ludlow: murdered by British Army UDR/Red Hand Commando loyalist death squad on 2 May 1976.The Joint Committee into the Barron  Report on the murder of Seamus Ludlow expressed its deep concern "that missing documents and evidence feature so strongly in this report".

The Barron report stated that some exhibits are missing, including two of the bullets found at the murder scene and photographic records of certain finger-prints taken at the scene.

This latest report states that "failure to retain the exhibits in the case is of particular concern for the following reason - when the four suspects were interviewed by the RUC in 1998, two of them made admissions. The DPP for Northern Ireland has since made a decision that there is not sufficient evidence to mount a prosecution. If there had been some exhibits preserved, and even if one of those could have been linked to the four suspects, then it may have been the case that a different decision could have been reached."

One explaination why evidence was missing was given by Former Chief Superintendent Cotterell who stated "I noticed when reading the (The Barron) report that there was correspondence missing. I could well imagine this happening because the station in Drogheda at the time was a very old dilapidated building, which has been replaced by a nice new one. Given that files were transferred from there to Dundalk, and after a couple of years transferred back to Drogheda again, I can well imagine many of them being lost."

Questions were also raised about files relating to the case at the Department of Justice - of which only three were found and none relating to the 1977 or 1979 inquiries.

Kevin Ludlow and Jimmy Sharkey at the grave of Seamus Ludlow, in Ravensdale's Catholic Calvary Cemetery.During the course of the hearings it emerged that a letter was communicated to the Gardai, naming one of the four suspects as a person in whom the police should take an interest. The letter predated the murder of Seamus Ludlow. On behalf of the family, Mr James McGuill said that they had not adverted to the existence of this document since it was only obliquely referred to elsewhere. He pointed out that it was not addressed in Mr Justice Barron's Report.

The Sub-Committee took the view "that this document raises questions about the adequacy of the 1976 investigation. In particular, the fact that this individual was named in this document raises the question as to why intensive cross-border inquiries were not conducted in 1976 in order to ascertain whether Seamus Ludlow could have been murdered by one or more of the persons identified in the document that had been suplied by the RUC a few short months previously."

The Committee also expressed its regret at the lack of co-operation from the RUC/PSNI and the Northern Ireland Office in regard to making files and information available.

In regard to the question of missing documents, the Committee has recommended that a commission of investigation be established to investigate the following;

a) What documents were created or maintained by An Garda Siochana including security intelligence C3 Section in relation to the murder of Seamus Ludlow?

b)Where are those documents?

c) If those documents are not available for inspection what is the reason for this?

d)What documents were created or maintained by the Department of Justice (and Departments of An Taoiseach, Foreign Affairs and Defence, in respect of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Security), in relation to the murder of Seamus Ludlow? 


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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)

SUPPORT THE SEAMUS LUDLOW APPEAL FUND

Bank of Ireland
78 Clanbrassil Street
Dundalk
County Louth
Ireland

Account No. 70037984 

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Copyright © 2006 the Ludlow family. All rights reserved.
Revised: April 26, 2006