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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, 9 February 2006:
McDowell
apologises to Ludlow family
By
Harry McGee, Political Editor
JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell yesterday apologised to the family of Seamus
Ludlow for the State’s handling of his murder investigation.The 47-year-old
Dundalk man was shot dead as he returned home from a pub in May 1976.
The garda investigation into his murder, which was abandoned after 23 days, was
severely criticised by retired Supreme Court judge Henry Barron in his report
into the killing.
The RUC passed information to the gardaí in 1979 naming four loyalists it
believed were involved in his killing. However, the line was never actively
pursued by gardaí. There have also been persistent rumours since 1976 relating
to collusion between his killers and the British security services. Speaking to
the Oireachtas backbench committee on justice, which is holding hearings on the
Barron Report, Mr McDowell said the key issue related to the non-pursuit by
gardaí of the critical information received from the RUC naming four suspects
for the murder.
Referring to the conflicting evidence of gardaí as to why this line of enquiry
was not pursued, Mr McDowell said he was not in a position to adjudicate. “I
simply don’t know how the decision not to interview the suspects was reached,
or what precisely informed garda thinking in this case.”
He said this was because there was nothing in his department’s files relating
to the identification of the four suspects in 1979. He believed speculatively
that no communication was made to the department about this development at the
time, partly because it was not a practice of An Garda Síochána at the time to
inform Justice about specific investigations. “The garda investigation into
the murder of Seamus Ludlow undoubtedly has good and, unfortunately, bad points.
“The Ludlow family undoubtedly has a sound basis for feeling aggrieved at a
number of events surrounding the murder, including events relating to the
interview of suspects and the original coroner’s inquest,” said Mr McDowell.
Later, journalist Ed Moloney told the hearing it seemed to him gardaí made
their minds up early that the IRA had done the killing. Outlining a number of
reports he wrote for the Sunday Tribune, he described claims of collusion made
to him by a source who had contacted Mr Moloney through his solicitor.
Mr Moloney said any inquiry would have to explore the question of collusion.
“If an inquiry is held and this whole area is excluded, the fact that it was
not included is going to fester away as a cause of resentment. It has to be
answered, either it’s true or it’s not,” he said.
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 10, 2006
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