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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 Ombudsman - Ed 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)
Original
Ludlow Family website - Second
Ludlow Family website - The
Dundalk Bombing
The
Irish Examiner, 1 February 2006:
‘Bodies
dumped on Border roadsides’
By
Senan Hogan
FEAR stalked the Border area and bodies were regularly dumped along roadsides in
the mid-1970s, an Oireachtas all-party body heard yesterday.
The Justice Sub-Committee is into its second week of
hearings on the Barron Report into the 1976 murder of Dundalk forestry worker
Seamus Ludlow.
Mr Ludlow, 47, who had no links to paramilitary groups, was shot dead as he
returned home from a night out.
The Barron Report said the RUC told gardaí in 1979 that it believed four named
loyalists were involved in his killing, but this information was not pursued by
the gardaí at the time.
Former Co Louth TD Brendan McGahon yesterday admitted he was wrong to blame the
IRA for the murder during a radio interview with RTÉ broadcaster Pat Kenny in
1993.
“I was wrong but only hindsight has proven me wrong,” he told sub-committee
members.
The ex-Fine Gael TD said he was given the information at the time by a garda,
but he couldn’t remember his name.
He recalled that the time of the murder was a dreadful period in the Border
area.
“There was fear all around,” he said. “There was economic depression in
Dundalk because of the level of crime in the 1970s.
“There were many instances of bodies found lying on the roadsides. So when
Seamus was killed and his body found lying on the roadside a couple of hundred
yards from his home, it was in my opinion, reasonable to assume that the IRA had
done it because the IRA was the only firm operating in that business of
slaughter, murder in the Border area at that time.
“There was no other rational view.”
Mr McGahon added: “At that time, there was no evidence at all of any forays
across the Border by UVF personnel.”
Earlier, former Detective Superintendent John Courtney said he was disappointed
that four loyalists identified by the RUC to gardaí weren’t questioned by
detectives in the Republic.
He repeated his claims in the Barron Report, that Detective Sergeant Dan Boyle
told him in 1979 that former Garda Commissioner Larry Wren had advised senior
officers that no further action should be taken in the case.
“I was really interested to have those suspects followed up,” Mr Courtney
said.
Mr Wren later told the sub-committee that he did not accept the conclusion in
the report that it was “most probable” that the decision not to interview
the four loyalists was made by him.
After questioning by Labour Party TD Joe Costello, Mr Wren replied: “How this
conclusion can be reached ... beggars comprehension, and when Det Supt
Courtney’s direct superiors don’t appear to have any knowledge of his
efforts in this regard.
“If those four suspects were extradited, the RUC would be looking for four IRA
suspects to be extradited back up to Belfast.”
Download
the Barron Report 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
Thank You.
Copyright © 2006
the Ludlow family. All rights reserved. Revised: February 01, 2006
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