Welcome to the Ludlow
Family's website for the Seamus Ludlow Truth and Justice Campaign.
Homepage. Chronology - Page 1. Chronology - Page 2. Chronology - Page 4.
This is a photograph of the late Seamus Ludlow (47), a lifelong resident of Thistlecross, Mountpleasant, Dundalk, County Louth, who was abducted and murdered after leaving a Dundalk public house by UDR and Red Hand Commando killers from north Down on the night of 1st. and 2nd. May 1976.
Seamus Ludlow's Loyalist killers were never brought to justice, even though they were identified by the Gardai and the RUC soon after the crime was committed. They were not arrested until February 1989, when they were released without charge. On 15 October 1999 the Northern Ireland Director of Public Prosecutions ruled that there would be no prosecutions in this case.
There has been no justice for Seamus Ludlow and no truth for his family. Instead the innocent victim was smeared - alleged to have been less than innocent, an informer murdered by the IRA - and his family falsely implicated in the crime, while his Loyalist killers were protected. The Ludlow family has campaigned for truth and justice for many years while they were told lies by the Gardai who had suppressed a file on the killers which had been in their possession since 1979. The Ludlow family demands public inquiries north and south to get answers to many questions remaining.
Chronology Page 3.
(. . .Continued from Chronology - Page 2.)
13 April 1999 - In a letter to Mo Mowlam, Britain's Secretary of State in Belfast, Liz O'Donnell, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in Dublin, referred to her government's 11-page assessment of the British Irish Rights Watch (BIRW) report on the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane. Her words could not have been better argued by the Ludlow family in their justification of a public inquiry for the murder of Seamus Ludlow.
Here was a Dublin Minister demanding of the British the very mechanism that her own Government was refusing to the Ludlow family and the victims of the Dublin, Monaghan and Dundalk bombings of the 1970s.
The Minister's letter included: "As the assessment argues, the Finucane case and the associated allegations of collusion, fulfill the fundamental requirement of a public inquiry - i.e. that the matter under consideration is of urgent public interest. The accumulated evidence is sufficient to give reasonable cause to the public to believe that collusion may have taken place. Moreover, the allegations in question serve to undermine confidence in the rule of law and the concept of equality before the law. In my view, they can only be answered with confidence - one way or the other - through the mechanism of a public inquiry."
14 April 1999 - In reply to the above mentioned letter of 7 March to the RUC Chief Constable, Chief Superintendent G.W. Sillery, for the Chief Constable, thanked the Ludlow family for indicating the questions that they would like to discuss with Mr. Flanagan. He continued: "You will appreciate I am sure that any meeting on your issues would be more appropriate after the Director of Public Prosecutions has given his decision on the investigation file currently with him.
"I will communicate further with you when the DPP's decision is at hand."
Given that the RUC had requested the list of questions in the first place, it was evidently a probing exercise since there was clearly no intention of allowing such a meeting to take place. Even though the DPP made his decision known on 15 October 1999, the Chief Constable has made no response to the family's request for a meeting.
19 April 1999 - In a letter to the Ludlow family Mr. Ken Livingstone MP said that he gave the Ludlow family "my wholehearted backing."
In another letter, dated 19 April, to the Ludlow family's solicitor, Garda Chief Superintendent Ted Murphy, confirmed that his investigation was completed. He responded to the solicitor's request for access to his report with: "Because of the Confidential nature of the report I am unable to provide you with a copy thereof."
30 April 1999 - In a letter to An Garda Siochana,
the family's solicitor responded to the refusal to give access to the Murphy
Inquiry report: "It appears to defeat the purpose of reassuring the family
that a proper investigation has been carried out into the original misconduct -
if they are to be denied access to the outcome of that investigation. Perhaps
you would be good enough to re-consider the matter and let us hear from
you."
5 May 1999 - The Irish News newspaper in Belfast reported the unveiling of a new memorial plaque in the lane off the Bog Road where the body of Seamus Ludlow was discovered on 2 May 1976. This new stone replaced a plaque that had marked the spot for several years.
16 May 1999 - Several members of the Ludlow family, including Kevin Ludlow and his sister Nan Sharkey, and younger members of the family circle, were in Dublin on this day for a very special occasion. They had responded to a special invitation from the Justice for the Forgotten group to attend the 25th anniversary commemoration ceremonies for the 34 people who were murdered and the many more who were injured in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of May 1974.
The crowd gathered first at the Talbot Street monument to the dead of that day and then walked on to the other bomb sites at Parnell Street and South Leinster Street. Brief talks were given at each of the three bomb sites before the gathering assembled at the gates of Leinster House. Not even one TD was in attendance. Jimmy Sharkey addressed the gathering on behalf of the Ludlow family and copies of the independent British Irish Rights Watch report and other documentation were handed out.
19 May 1999 - Tom Brady, writing in the Irish Independent newspaper, reported that the Dublin Government "is to order a full inquiry" into the murder of Seamus Ludlow. The inquiry, he wrote, " will focus on a recent garda investigation which has concluded that the names of four prime suspects for the shooting of Dundalk man Seamus Ludlow were known since 1979.
"The suspects were not interviewed by either the gardai or other police forces until last year - despite the intelligence pinpointing their involvement in the crime.
"The report, which was recemntly submitted by the gardai to the Government, is likely to pose embarrassing questions for former senior members of the gardai and RUC."
Mr. Brady also reported that a file received from the RUC in 1979 was "understood to have been sent to the offices of five chief superintendents and an assistant commissioner but no action was taken. There is likely to be conflicting evidence from retired members of the force as to why the investigation was not reopened at that stage."
23 July 1999 - In a letter to the Ludlow family, the Assistant Private Secretary to the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, advised:
"that the Commissioner of the Garda Siochana is finalising a report on the matter, which will then be presented to the Minister for Justice. You will appreciate that it would not be appropriate for the Taoiseach to comment on specific issues relating to the matter in advance of the report becoming available and its consideration by the Minister."
27 July 1999 - In a letter to Mr. Seamus Mallon MP, Newry and Armagh, Mr. John O'Donoghue TD, Minister for Justice, wrote:
"As you are aware, in response to representations made by Mr. Ludlow's family, the Garda Commissioner, in May 1996, arranged for senior officers in the Louth/Meath Division to meet with the Ludlow family with a view to establishing how best to proceed with this matter. As a consequence of their findings, the Commissioner directed that a senior officer from the National Bureau of criminal Investigation (NBCI) should further pursue the investigation. This he did, in conjunction with RUC officers, resulting in a number of people being arrested outside the State. An investigation file has been forwarded to the DPP, Northern Ireland and his decision is now awaited. The Garda Commissioner is now finalising a report on the investigation into the murder of Mr. Ludlow which will be given careful consideration when received."
5 August 1999 - The Irish Victims Commissioner Mr. John Wilson, released his report A Place and a Name, in which he calls for a private inquiry into Seamus Ludlow's murder and the Garda cover-up, with the final report held secret until after any court proceedings in Belfast. No details of the inquiry's term of reference were given. The Ludlow family reiterated their demand for a full and public inquiry.
10 August 1999 - The Ludlow
family responded to the Victims Commission's Report with a letter to Mr. John
Wilson: "Where the family broadly welcomes your report and that your
recommendation for an independent inquiry into the murder of Seamus Ludlow, the
family are extremely angry and disappointed that the inquiry is to be held in
private. We, the family, suspect an air of suspicion that the inquiry is to be
held in private and that this would not give the family a level playing field.
"As that the inquiry is to be held in private is the only recommendation, we would hope before you meet your Government, you would give serious consideration to the family's demand that the inquiry be held in public. . .".
This photograph of the Victims Commission's Report links to further information about the Ludlow family's reaction to the decision in favour of a private inquiry.
8 September 1999 - In a letter to Bertie Ahern, Donncha O'Connell, of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), Dublin, reacted to the recent Victims Commission's report. While ICCL welcomed the report's recommendation of judicial inquiries into Seamus Ludlow's murder and those of the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, Mr. O'Connell added:
"We are, however disappointed that the Commission came out against public inquiries in both cases and we fully support the call by the relatives of Seamus Ludlow for a public inquiry. We trust that the terms of reference for such an inquiry will be drawn sufficiently widely to deal with both the murder of Seamus Ludlow and the apparent cover-up which followed his murder. The Ludlow case has become somewhat lost in all of the media attention surrounding the Dublin-Monaghan bombings but we feel that the response of the Victims Commission to that case is no less worthy of urgent attention . . .".
29 September 1999 - Bertie Ahern formally announced the holding of private inquiries along the lines of those envisaged by Victims Commissioner John Wilson, into the Dublin-Monaghan and Dundalk bombings and the murder of Seamus Ludlow - but no precise details of terms of reference were given.
Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin had placed a question for oral answer on that date:
"To ask the Taoiseach if he will establish a public inquiry into the murder of Mr. Seamus Ludlow."
In his answer, Mr. Ahern said:
"In the case of Seamus Ludlow, Mr. Wilson also recommended that an independent, private enquiry be carried out by a former Supreme Court Judge but, in order not to compromise any criminal prosecution, this enquiry should not publish its Report. . .".
12 October 1999 - A member of the Ludlow family attended the launch of the Border Relatives Group at a press conference in Dublin. The group would represent several families along the border who had suffered loss caused by loyalist/British murder gangs.
13 October 1999 - In a letter to Kevin Ludlow, brother of the late Seamus Ludlow, the Taoiseach's Private Secretary, confirming the Government's intention "having considered all aspects of the matter, including the various representations made . . . to accept the recommendation of the Victims Commission in regard to an inquiry into the murder of Mr. Ludlow", he added: "The Taoiseach is asking the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. John O'Donoghue, TD to meet you at an early date, in order to discuss with you the arrangements to make for the inquiry."
The Ludlow family had being trying, without success, to secure a meeting with Mr. Ahern himself.
(This Chronology continues on another page. . .).
Launch of Joe Tiernan's book The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings and the Murder Triangle
Copyright © 2003 the Ludlow
family. All rights reserved.
Revised: June 13, 2003 .