This page features further information relating to the Ludlow family circle's campaign for justice for their murdered relative Seamus Ludlow.
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Last updated: 16/01/03 
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Welcome to the Ludlow family's website for the Seamus Ludlow Truth and Justice Campaign.
This page features further information relating to the Ludlow family circle's campaign for justice for their murdered relative Seamus Ludlow.
Back to Home Page
Last updated: 16/01/03
Seamus Ludlow (47), Thistlecross, Mountpleasant, Dundalk, County Louth, who was murdered in County Louth by UDR/Red Hand Commando, 2 May 1976.
Paul Hosking's Account.
What follows is based partially upon information the Ludlow family has uncovered through its contacts with the RUC in the Six Counties and with the Gardai in the Irish Republic, and upon information that has been placed in the public domain by a man who claims to have been a witness to the sectarian murder of Seamus Ludlow by members of the UDR and the outlawed Red Hand Commando.
The Ludlow family believes that Paul Hosking's account of Seamus Ludlow's murder must be related, but it is also important that the names of his alleged companions should not be reported at this time. Hosking's story was told in an article published by the Dublin Sunday Tribune on 8 March 1998.
Paul Hosking, then a 19 year old Protestant
factory worker, a loyalist and low level member of the Ulster Defence
Association (UDA), from Comber, north Down, has told journalist Ed Moloney of
The Sunday Tribune that he witnessed the abduction and
murder of Seamus Ludlow by three companions he had travelled across the border
with on 1 May 1976. Earlier that day, a Saturday, he fell into company with the
three other men at his local pub. It was very quiet because many locals were in
England and Scotland attending the FA and SFA Cup matches. Hosking says that he
knew the other three men only casually. They were all allegedly members of the
outlawed Red Hand Commando and at least two them were in the UDR, one of them a
captain. They were all armed. The three suspects, whose names are known to the
Ludlow family, will not be identified here.
Because the pub was quiet
they went to another bar which was also quiet. One of the men apparently
suggested a trip down to the border to spy on the IRA who were alleged to be
setting up checkpoints. Thus the four set off in a yellow two-door Datsun
sports-type car for the border. Hosking was sitting in the rear behind the front
seat passenger, a man known by his nickname "Mambo". To his left sat the UDR
captain who was begind the driver. The names of the three other men are all
known to the Ludlow family but their names are being withheld at this
time. The route travelled by these men from Newry, through Omeath and the Cooley
Peninsula, to Dundalk, can be viewed in a map on another page.
This
photograph of Paul Hosking from the Sunday Tribune links to the Pat
Finucane Centre's website. Journalist Ed Moloney's articles on the murder of
Seamus Ludlow, including his interview with Paul Hosking, can be accessed on the
Pat Finucane Centre's excellent site, which has much valuable information about
several other important and disturbing cases.
Hosking (photographed on right) says that before they reached the border the car was stopped at a permanent British Army checkpoint, presumably on the Omeath Road to the south of Newry. On being challenged, the driver passed his UDR card to the British Army sentry who then waved them on. They then crossed the border and spent some time drinking in a pub at Omeath, where Hosking claims he watched the football on television and remained largely apart from the other three men.
On leaving the pub, says Hosking, the car drove south to Dundalk rather than north and back across the border. This action in itself reveals that at least one of the men was familiar with the road network of the Cooley Peninsula, and such familiarity raises a number of questions. Why would UDR men from north Down be familiar with roads so far from home? Had they been in the border area previously on other missions, to spy or to kill? Were they part of an undercover squad which was involved with the British Army and its murky activities along the border? Were they participating in a major operation in Dundalk on the night in question? What was their connection to the British soldier and the three men in a car reportedly seen at the Lisdoo Arms?
The Datsun car continued on to Dundalk where near midnight it stopped to pick up an apparently drunk man, Seamus Ludlow, who was hitching a lift home outside Smith's Garage. The car stopped and the man known as "Mambo" got out and lifted the front seat forward so that the man could get into the rear seat. The stranger thus got into the rear wjhere he sat between Paul Hosking and the UDR captain. Within a few minutes the man pointed to his house, but the car did not stop to let him out. Instead, the Datsun turned right off the Belfast-Dublin road and headed down the Bog Road which leads to the Carlingford Road. Very soon the car halted and reversed a short distance down a lane which was a short distance from the rear entrance to the Ballymascanlan Hotel.
At this point in his account given to Ed Moloney of the Sunday Tribune, Paul Hosking says that he asked to be let out to relieve himself as he had taken a lot of drink during the course of the day. It was while he was relieving himself a short distance from the car that Hosking heard a loud bang. Looking around, he claims to have seen the front seat passenger "Mambo" firing a gun into the back of the car. In all three shots were fired and the dead body of the abducted man was dragged from the car by "Mambo" and the UDR captain and thrown high upon a ditch.
This photograph is a still from
UTV Live Insight's reconstruction of
the abduction of Seamus Ludlow, as described by Paul Hosking. The programme,
broadcast on Monday 25 October, used actors to stage the scene where Seamus
Ludlow was picked up near Smith's Garage. In this still the front seat passenger
is preparing to lift his seat forward to allow Seamus Ludlow's role-player into
the back seat. A later scene would depict the actual murder of Seamus
Ludlow. The photograph links to a report on recent events in the Ludlow family's
campaign for truth and justice.
At this point we may speculate as to the motives
of those who murdered Seamus Ludlow. Was he simply an unfortunate who had fallen
into the hands of a drink-crazed gang who were only delighted that their victim
must certainly have been a Catholic? Or were there more sinister reasons for the
murder gang's journey to Dundalk? Was Seamus Ludlow mistaken for another person
who was on a death list? Even now, 23 years later, these questions and more
remain unanswered. Certainly, the killers had no way of knowing who Seamus
Ludlow was. Almost certainly they did not care who he was.
Hosking claims that the gang continued on their way home to north Down and during the following days he was threatened by the other men. He feared that he was going to be killed to ensure his silence. Attempts were made to force him into joining the Red Hand Commando, but this stopped when he sought help from his local UDA commander.
Paul Hosking says that he heard no more about the Seamus Ludlow murder until January or February 1987 when he was approached at a family funeral he was approached by a relative who was a member of the RUC, who told him that the Special Branch wanted to see him about "something serious". The Sunday Tribune, 8 March 1998, now takes up the story:
"He agreed to meet the RUC in a Newtownards pub with his RUC relative as a witness. Hosking recalls that the Special Branch man, whose name is known to The Sunday Tribune, "seemed to know all the story". He thinks the meeting took place in January or February 1987.
He went on: "That's where I met the Special Branch man, he introduced himself. (The relative) went away to the bar to get a drink and your man said he knew I had been there. He knew I hadn't been involved but he wanted to know my story. I said OK and I told him the story from start to finish. At the end I said what happens now and he said "Forget it, Its political"."
Paul Hosking heard no more from the RUC about his involvement in the murder of Seamus Ludlow until February 1998, when he was arrested by the RUC as he came off night shift to find scores of RUC at his home. He was arrested and held for four days at Castlereagh Holding Centre. Back to The Sunday Tribune:
He says his first remarks to the CID were: "Why are you coming to me now? I told the Special Branch this... and your'e looking for me now." He says he told the CID the full story of the day Seamus Ludlow was killed. . .
This graphic was used by UTV
Live Insight on 25 October 1999 when the murder of Seamus
Ludlow was featured in great detail. A colour photograph of Paul Hosking appears
at lower right while silhouettes are used to depict the three alleged Red Hand
Commandos, though one man is given his nickname
"Mambo". The photograph
links to more about the arresting of these four men.
In interviews with The Sunday Tribune, Paul Hosking both protests his innocence and expresses anger at being arrested after already having told the RUC Special Branch everything he saw on the day of the Ludlow murder. He has given detectives in Castlereagh interrogation centre the name of the RUC Special Branch officer who met him in 1987 to discuss the details of the killing, and has made a written statement alleging that he gave the RUC Special Branch a full account of the part played by the killers.
Hosking's 1987 statement to the RUC Special Branch officer technically amounted to an admission that he had withheld evidence during the 10 years following the killing, yet the Special Branch apparently chose not to take any action against him, or the three men he named as responsible for the killing. . . .
All four suspects were taken into custody at the same time, with the alleged killer known as "Mambo" being arrested at his home in England.They were all released without charge but a report on each was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who waited almost a full year before deciding that none of the men were to be prosecuted. It was an extraordinary conclusion, which no doubt will lead to disbelief that these men should remain immune from the consequences of their evil deeds.
It has been speculated that no action was taken by the RUC Special Branch in 1987 (after Hosking's first interview by the Special Branch officer) or by the RUC and the Gardai in 1979 (after the RUC file was taken to Dublin) or even in 1976, because one of the men involved in the killing, perhaps the killer himself, was a valuable agent for Special Branch, British Army Intelligence, or even for the Gardai. It is thought that Seamus Ludlow's killers were protected and Seamus Ludlow's murder went officially unsolved and the victim vilified, so that this man could continue to be useful for the authorities. It now appears that this state protection continues, and the process which brought the four men into custody has been reduced to a farce.
In essence Seamus Ludlow was expendable in 1976 and he remains so in 2000. He was of course the ideal victim for a cover-up, being single, childless, poor and working class - for the authorities he was a man of no importance whose death could be disregarded and his character smeared.
Given the suspicions of covert cross-border operations which were prevalent at that time it seemed strange to say the least that the Garda did not appear to take seriously the widespread view of British or Loyalist involvement in the murder of Seamus Ludlow. Given what is now known about the authorities on both sides of the border colluding to protect the UDR/Red Hand Commando killers and the allegations of British Army activity in Dundalk that night it seems possible that Seamus Ludlow fell into the clutches of more than one gang on the night of his death.
This is a photograph of Castlereagh Holding Centre,
Belfast, where Paul Hosking and three other Loyalists were held, for questioning about
Seamus Ludlow's May 1976 murder, in February 1998. All four loyalists were
released without charge. Files were prepared for the Northern Ireland DPP, who ultimately decided
that there should be no prosecutions for Seamus Ludlow's
murder. The photograph links to information about the contributions of
journalists Ed Moloney and Joe Tiernan to the Ludlow family's recent discovery
of new information about the murder of Seamus Ludlow.
It seems unlikely that the UDR men from north
Down would have been familiar to customers at the Lisdoo Arms public house so
the British soldier who was reportedly recognised in that bar on the night in
question, as reported by Michael Cunningham in
his book Monaghan County of Intrigue, may likely have been part of another group.The possible presence of a
second armed gang at the same place on that occasion points to a more sinister
purpose for the Hosking's UDR/Red Hand Commando associates in
Dundalk.
Despite Paul Hosking's admissions, both in public to The Sunday Tribune and in private to the RUC - as well as the admissions of a second man who was in the killers' car on that night in 1976 - the Northern Ireland Director of Public Prosecutions reached an inexplicable decision after considering the RUC's investigation file for a whole year. On 15 October 1999, in a letter to the Ludlow family the DPP's office stated "it has concluded that there is no reasonable prospect of a conviction of any person reported therein in respect of the murder . . . Consequently a direction for no prosecution in the matter has today issued to the Chief Constable".
It is extraordinary that charges can not even be levelled at Hosking or the second man who made statements to the RUC, but it can be argued that they are being protected despite their own evidence simply to keep the whole matter out of court and to avoid the dark secrets held by this killer gang from being revealed.
The family has been told by a journalist that the actual killer had believed that it was unlikely that he would be charged with any offence more than a week prior to the DPP's announcement. This indicates that the suspect knew of the DPP's decision in advance and that a deal may have been struck to keep him out of court and to prevent any leaking of information.
If this is the case, then it would make sense to keep Hosking and the other man out of court too, for almost certainly no court proceedings could avoid intense discussion of the role of others in the gang as well as that of the RUC in covering-up.
Ed Moloney's Sunday Tribune article of 8 March 1998 which features Paul Hosking's interview can be accessed on The Pat Finucane Centre's excellent website.
Back to Top of Page.
Back to Home Page
Go To Map of the killers' route into Dundalk.
Go to Chronology.
Go to Journalists' Revelations.
Go to "Mambo" Speaks Out.
Go to Profile.
Go to the Text of the BIRW Report.
The Dundalk Democrat reports the publication of investigative journalist Joe Tiernan's controversial new book, The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings and the Murder Triangle
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Copyright
© 2003 the Ludlow family. All rights reserved.
Revised: January 16, 2003
.