The Argus comments on new information of UDR and loyalist involvement in the murder of Seamus Ludlow.

The Argus (Dundalk), 13 March 1998:

Can the long arm of the law be extended 22 years?

There was no doubting the fact that Seamus Ludlow, a 47-year-old forestry worker was killed 22 years ago because he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Seamus Ludlow: murdered by UDR/Red Hand Commando murder gang 2 May 1976. Having worked on the story at the time, and having reported on different aspects of the murder from time to time in the intervening years it was impossible not to conclude that Seamus Ludlow was a totally innocent man, involved in no organisation who happened to hitch a lift with the wrong people.

He had been on a night out in Dundalk on Saturday 1st May, 1976, had visited a number of pubs, the last being the Lisdoo Arms and was making his way to his home at Thistlecross where he lived with his elderly mother when he was picked up in a car and never seen alive again.

His body was found the following day on the road leading from Thistlecross to the Carlingford Road where it had been dumped in a ditch. He had been shot three times.

At the time there appeared to be no motive for the murder, even though was a particularly violent time in the North, but Mr Ludlow would not have been regarded as a target for any organisation.

Of course there was speculation, one theory being that as a forestry worker he discovered something that he shouldn't have seen in the forest where he worked and was murdered for his silence.

The Gardai encouraged the belief for many years that he was murdered by the IRA, but they made no statement of claim, and Mr Ludlow's family, while mystified like everyone else, didn't really subscribe to that view, believing as many others did that there was Loyalist involvement, or that British Army personnel, who were known to be involved in covert operations in the Republic at that time, were involved.

It now appears that the theory over Loyalist involvement was the most accurate.

A witness has now come forward who revealed that having been drinking with three others, one a captain in the UDR, another an officer in the regiment, in a bar in Comber when they decided to head south, drove into Omeath and then on to Dundalk where they picked up Mr Ludlow who was hitching a lift on the Newry Road.

While the witness was out of the car going to the toilet, he heard the shots which killed Mr Ludlow, his body dumped in a hedge.

The three involved were linked with the Red Hand Commando, and according to the witness, they threatened him not to reveal his experience.

But the witness now claims that he was questioned by the RUC in 1986 and revealed the names of those involved.

Nothing was done at the time, the witness claiming that the RUC told him "Forget it. It's political".

It now appears that the file on the case has been reopened by the RUC at the instigation of the Gardai and that the four involved, including the witness, have been questioned extensively.

Neither the Gardai or the RUC will confirm this, but files have been sent to the DPP in the north, and there is speculation that charges will follow.

If so it will be a relief to the Ludlow family and many in this area that the long arm of the law can stretch this far, for even after all this time that unsolved, brutal murder still burns in my mind having witnessed the body in the ditch soon after it was found, and it would be a great relief to see those responsible brought to justice.

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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)