On the 1st May 1976, Seamus
Ludlow returned from work at 1.15p.m. It was a
lovely sunny day on a Saturday afternoon. Seamus
was employed by Mr. Danny Philips, Timber
Merchant, in Ravensdale, Co. Louth. His
brother-in-law, Tommy Fox, also worked there as a
tree feller. Both men got on very well with each
other and enjoyed a bit of 'craic'.
Seamus cleaned himself up and
headed for Dundalk at about 3.00p.m. which was
his customary routine on a Saturday afternoon,
where he would enjoy a few pints and play a few
games of darts and rings with his friends,
frequenting two or three pubs in the town.
It was known he drank in the
Lisdoo Arms Pub. Leaving at about 11.30p.m. to
hitch a lift home to his home at Thistle Cross,
Mountpleasant, he was spotted by a number of
people hitching a lift between the Lisdoo Arms
(photographed here) and Smith's Garage on the
Newry Road. Sometime between 11.40p.m. and
12.30a.m. a strange car with strange men stopped
and gave him a lift. The journey to his home
would have taken 8-10 minutes, depending on the
traffic, Seamus never returned home.
On Sunday morning, 2nd May
1976, his sister Nan Sharkey, whom Seamus lived
with along with his mother, was getting her
children ready to attend Mass at 8.00a.m. in the
local Convent when she noticed Seamus had not
returned home from Dundalk from the previous day.
She became quite agitated and upset as this was
not what Seamus would have ever done. On
returning from Mass at about 9.00a.m. she
contacted his two brothers in Dundalk to see if
he had stayed with them. His two sisters were
also contacted to see if he had stayed with them,
but they also had not seen him. At about
11.30a.m. the Gardai were informed that Seamus
was missing. A large search party was organised
by family, friends and Gardai to look for him.
At about 3.00p.m. two people
from Northern Ireland were out walking down the
bog road which leads to the back entrance to
Ballymascanlon House Hotel and one mile from
Seamus Ludlow's home. They turned left down a
lane off the bog road about 25 ft. down the lane
on the right hand side the two people notice a
group of cattle in the field standing close to
the ditch. The cattle were quite agitated and
they were looking at something lying on the ditch
in the field. One of the two people climbed up on
the ditch from the laneside of the field. They
noticed a body of a man lying prone on the ditch
on the field side.
The two people made their way
to a nearby house to phone the Gardai. The Gardai
arrived within 10 minutes and, on inspection, of
the man's body noticed a lot of blood and what
seemed to be gunshot wounds or stab wounds.
Immediately the area was sealed off and a murder
inquiry began. Members of the Ludlow family were
informed of the discovery of a body. Kevin
Ludlow, the deceased brother, Tommy Fox and John
Sharkey, both brothers-in-law of the deceased,
went to the murder scene. Positive identification
was made by Mr. Kevin Ludlow of his brother at
this time, approximately 4.15p.m. News had spread
fast of the gruesome discovery and a large crowd
of neighbours had gathered close to the scene at
about 6.00p.m. Dr. John Harbison, the newly
appointed State Pathologist, arrived to examine
the body and the murder scene. At about 7.30p.m.
the body of Seamus Ludlow was removed to the
Louth County Hospital for a more thorough
examination by Dr. Harbison. The murder scene was
sealed off and the murder squad took over the
case. An incident room was set up in the Garda
Station in Dundalk. The murder Squad was lead by
Detective Chief Superintendent Dan Murphy (now
deceased) and his team of 30 Detectives
comprising Detectives from Dublin and Dundalk.
The murder investigation got
into full swing with over 2,000 people
questioned. 1,700 homes were visited and 1,000
cars stopped at vehicle checkpoints over the
coming four weeks. The Gardai concentrated their
investigation on the Provisional I.R.A. In the
area where Seamus Ludlow lived there were up to
40/50 top I.R.A. men domicile.
All family members were
questioned vigorously by the Special Branch about
the murder. In fact, the Special Branch became
very hostile towards family members and showed no
sign of sympathy or compassion towards the
family. Family members, at the time, could not
believe the behaviour of the Special Branch (but
there was a method in the behaviour as time was
to tell..)
On Wednesday the 5th May 1976,
Seamus Ludlow was buried in Calvary Cemetery in
Ravensdale, Co. Louth. An estimated 2,500 people
attended the removal and burial. The largest
funeral seen in Ravensdale in living memory.
About four weeks after the
murder, abruptly and suddenly, the investigation
came to a halt. No reason was ever given to the
family by the Gardai or the Special Branch as to
why this happened, in fact, relations between the
family and the Gardai deteriorated. Individual
Gardai who were on good terms with the family,
stopped talking to the family members to the
amazement and surprise of the family members.
The Gardai or Special Branch
never came back to the family to explain how far
their investigation had got - this was very
strange indeed.
Some old family members
approached the Gardai soon after the
investigation ended and they were told a variety
of reasons as to why Seamus Ludlow was murdered,
but nothing concrete. The Gardai were pointing
the finger firmly at the Provisional I.R.A. and
over the coming years Kevin Ludlow, who called to
the Gardai Station in Dundalk on a yearly basis
to see if any new information had come to light
on the murder, was repeatedly told by a Special
Branch Detective whom, he (Kevin) was friendly
with, that it was the I.R.A. and, in fact, named
names to Kevin, saying "We will 'f......'
get them for this sometime".
The family now know that this
was part of the propaganda machine orchestrated
by the Gardai to divide the family and to
dishonour Seamus's good name, which they did for
22 years and are still trying to do.
The inquest into the murder of
Seamus Ludlow was held on Thursday 19th August
1976 in Dundalk. The Corner that day was Dr.
Scully. No member of the family were ever told
that the inquest was to be held.
Kevin Ludlow received a phone
call that morning at 10.15a.m. that the inquest
was to be held at 11.00a.m. Kevin was working on
the Warrenpoint Road in Newry Co. Down when he
received the phone call. It would have taken
Kevin one and a half hours to get home and
dressed to attend the inquest. He phoned his wife
in Dundalk asking her to try and get the inquest
put back, but she was told it was first on the
list. Sergeant Jim Gannon said he spoke for the
family which was not true. Again, this was
further proof of the behaviour of the Gardai at
that time.
The Coroner's Report showed
that Seamus Ludlow was shot three times in the
lung, liver and the fatal shot to the heart. He
also had a bullet wound to his left hand where he
had put up his hand to stop a bullet. Seamus had
been shot at point blank range, possibly 2 ft.,
and he was in a seated position when he was shot.
Seamus's clothing and shoes were clean, given
that the lane where the murder took place was wet
and mucky, indicating that he was shot elsewhere,
possibly, in the back of a car.
For 20 years the murder
remained a mystery. The Gardai repeatedly told
Kevin Ludlow "no new evidence" had come
to light on the murder and the only organisation
they were looking at was Provisional I.R.A.
Then in October 1995 an
investigative journalist who worked in Northern
Ireland approached members of the family, saying
he had new information about the "Ludlow
Murder". (The same journalist came to see
Mrs. Sharkey about 1985 but she did not entertain
him). A meeting was set up between him and the
family. He told the family that Loyalist
paramilitaries from Northern Ireland (and not
Republicans) murdered Seamus Ludlow and that the
Gardai knew this all along.
A series of meetings was held
between the journalist and the family over the
coming months. Jimmy Sharkey, a nephew of Seamus
Ludlow, asked the journalist where he got this
information. He said he had a source (a retired
Detective), whom he trusted for 12 years and his
source told him that the men who murdered Seamus
Ludlow were from Dundonald, east of Belfast in
North Down and were known to the Gardai all
along. With this information the family held a
Press Conference in the Boswells Hotel in Dublin
on 2nd May 1996, the 20th Anniversary of the
murder. They called on the then Gardai
Commissioner, Mr. Patrick Culligan, to reopen the
murder case, which he did.
On the 16th May 1996 the family
held their first meeting with the Gardai and
there was several meetings over the next two
years between them. The Gardai liaised with their
counterparts in Northern Ireland, the R.U.C. and
on Tuesday 17th February 1998, four prime
suspects were arrested and taken to Castlereagh
Holding Centre in Belfast. One of the suspects
was arrested in his home in Staffordshire in
England and flown to Belfast. All four were
questioned for six days. On the sixth day, all
four were released without charge and a file sent
to the D.P.P. in Northern Ireland for
consideration.
On hearing the news that all
four prime suspects were released without charge,
the family though disappointed, were not
disheartened. As the pressure was kept on the
Gardai and the R.U.C. to come up with some
answers, both the Gardai and the R.U.C. told the
family that these four prime suspects were the
ones involved in the murder of Seamus Ludlow and
they were 100% sure of that.
The car used in the murder that
night was a two door yellow Datsun, sporty type -
the gun used was a .38 revolver.
On Thursday 5th March 1998, Mr.
Ed Moloney contacted Kevin Ludlow and Jimmy
Sharkey. Ed Moloney is the Northern Ireland
Editor of the "Sunday Tribune"
newspaper. He told them that one of the suspects,
a Mr. Paul Hosking from Newtownards, Co. Down,
wanted to tell his story to Ed Moloney and on
Sunday the 8th March 1998, the "Tribune"
printed the full text of Hosking's gruesome
story.
A short time after the murder
was committed in 1976, possibly 3/4 months, the
Gardai had 60 - 70% of this information. In 1979
two Senior Detectives travelled to R.U.C.
Headquarters in Belfast and received all relative
information to the murder. The information was
put in the murder file and never acted upon, but
this did not stop the Gardai from telling lies to
the family. The Detective who got the information
in 1979 and put it in the file, Chief Supt. John
Courtney, is now retired, and living in Dublin.
On Thursday 20th August 1998,
Kevin Ludlow and Jimmy Sharkey travelled to
Dublin to meet Mr. Courtney. On hearing the name
"Ludlow", Mr. Courtney became very
aggressive and hostile towards both men, using
very threatening language to them. Mr. Courtney
then entered his house and would not come out.
This was the action of a guilty
man.
The R.U.C. have said the file
would be submitted to the D.P.P. by the end of
September 1998.
Summary
In the mid-seventies, the
Northern Ireland troubles were at their peak,
especially so around the border areas. Portadown,
in Mid-Ulster was a staunchly Loyalist town.
Dundalk was seen as a staunchly Republican town.
It was at this time that the troubles had spilled
over into the south. Loyalist paramilitaries made
some spectacular attacks across the border into
the Irish Republic - chief amongst these were:-
- Dublin and Monaghan bombings
1974.
- The shooting of I.R.A.
Commander John Francis Green near Castleblayney
in January 1975.
- Car bomb in Castleblayney March
1976 - one killed, Patrick Mohan.
- Murder of Mr. Christy Phelan in
Sallins in Co. Kildare in 1975 - stabbed 57 times
with a dagger.
- Car bomb in Dundalk town centre
in December 1975 - two dead - Hugh Watters and
Mr. Rooney.
- Murder of Seamus Ludlow 2nd May
1976
As can be seen, Loyalist
paramilitaries were very active at this time i.e.
U.V.F. and Red Hand Commandos, also the S.A.S
were operating covertly along the South Armagh,
North Louth Border and they murdered and abducted
2/3 well known Republicans in and around the
South Armagh and Dundalk area. In fact, three
days after Seamus Ludlow was murdered, on the
5/6th May 1976, eight heavily armed SAS men were
arrested by the Gardai on the southside of the
border at a place called 'Flagstaff' near Omeath,
in Co. Louth.
It is also important to point
out that the Government at that time was the
Coalition Government of Mr. Liam Cosgrove TD - it
ran from 1973 - 1977. This Government was very
Pro-British and was very Anti-Republican.
* This Profile was prepared by
Jimmy Sharkey, a nephew of the late Seamus
Ludlow.
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