This is a
photograph of Seamus Ludlow (47), of Thistlecross,
Mountpleasant, County Louth, an innocent man who was abducted
and murdered by UDR/Red Hand Commando, on 2 May 1976. His
Killers have never been brought to justice.
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Last updated: 13/01/03
The Ludlow Family and the Border Relatives Group.
The Ludlow family is
encouraged by the strides being made by other families in the
border area and beyond who are also searching for truth and
justice in their own individual cases. Seamus Ludlow was just
one of many forgotten victims of the sectarian Loyalist
murder campaign in the border area during the 1970s and his
family has shared the other family's sense of abandonment at
the hands of the Gardai and a state that seemed to look the
other way. The Ludlow family uniquely had to endure the added
pain of a smear campaign that blackened the good name of the
innocent victim. Of all the victims of Loyalists in the
border area only Seamus Ludlow was falsely dismissed as an
informer. Only Seamus Ludlow was falsely alleged to be a
victim of the IRA.
The Ludlow family demands a public inquiry to establish the full truth behind the murder of Seamus Ludlow , the smear campaign and the cover-up. The Ludlow family also supports the demands for truth and justice being made by other families who lost loved ones in similar circumstances and who have also been forgotten. These families are now organising under the banner of the Border Relatives Group.
Photograph: The launch of the Border Relatives Group. Joe Tiernan, the investigative journalist who has been instrumental in helping the Ludlow family secure a re-opening of long abandoned police investigations on both sides of the border, sits at the extreme left, with Jimmy Sharkey at his side. Joe Tiernan's book The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings and the Murder Triangle was published in December 2002.
The Border Relatives Group was launched in Dublin in October 1999. It was a timely coming together of five families of victims of Loyalist attacks along the border, mainly in Louth and Monaghan, throughout the 1970s. The attacks, in which four people died and 34 people were injured, were carried out by known loyalists from Down and Armagh, none of whom have ever been charged.
The Border Relatives Group announced that it would work closely with Justice for the Forgotten, the group representing the relatives of victims and the survivors of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974.
While the new group welcomed the Dublin authorities' interest and cooperation with various families, they had reservations about the prospect of the private inquiry that had recently been announced in relation to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
Speaking at the new group's press conference were Maura McKeever, Gerard Watters, Jimmy Sharkey, Anna McEnaneney, and Peter O'Connor, all of whom had lost relatives to the Loyalists' attacks. Also present was the journalist Joe Tiernan, who had done so much to help unmask the Garda conspiracy to cover-up the true facts about the murder of Seamus Ludlow in May 1976. Joe is now the author of a controversial book that examines in detail many of the sectarian murders committed on both sides of the border by the so-called Jackal and his cohorts during the 1970s as well as the evidence of collusion from the RUC and the British Army in much of their murderous activities.
Many of these cases are coming to the fore once more, particularly since recent revelations from a former RUC Special Branch Detective Sergeant John Weir who was imprisoned for his part in the sectarian murder of William Strathearn at Aghoghill, County Antrim in April 1977. He has revealed the existence of a conspiracy within the RUC which enabled members of that force and the UDR to collude and participate with UVF killers, led by the infamous "Jackal" Robin Jackson, now deceased, from the Portadown area in murderous sectarian gun and bomb attacks along the border and as far south as Dublin.
This man, John Weir, is alleging the presence or participation of RUC and UDR personnel at many Loyalist attacks during the 1970s, and none of the perpetrators have ever been brought to justice for any of these crimes. His list of attacks includes:
The Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974, when 33 people were killed and many others seriously injured, involved at least one serving RUC officer whose home was used for assembling the bombs, and the explosives were supplied by a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment, who had links to British Military Intelligence.
The murder of two Gaelic football supporters at Tullyvallen, near Newtownhamilton, County Armagh, in August 1975.
A gun and bomb attack at Donnelly's Bar, Silverbridge, County Armagh, on 19 December, 1975, which killed three people: Michael Donnelly, the bar owner's fourteen-year-old son; and two customers, Patrick Donnelly (aged 24) and Trevor Bracknell (aged 32). Several others were seriously injured, including one woman who was shot in the head and a man who was shot in the back.
On the same night as the Silverbridge attack a car bomb exploded outside Kay's Tavern, in Dundalk, killing two men and injuring several more. The dead were Hugh Watters (aged 55) and Jack Rooney (aged 61).
The 4 January 1976 shooting of the three Reavey brothers at Whitecross, John Martin (aged 24), Brian (aged 22) who both died instantly, and Anthony (aged 17) who died from his injuries on 30 January 1976.
A car bomb explosion at Castleblaney on 7 March 1976, in which Patrick Mohan, a farmer, was killed as he stepped out of his own vehicle.
Though the murder of Seamus Ludlow on 2 May 1976 does not appear in the former RUC sergeant's list of sectarian attacks along the border (those that he and his colleagues are alleged to have been involved in), it is clear that the Ludlow murder has many points in common with the above. At least two of the alleged perpetrators of Seamus Ludlow's murder were serving member's of the UDR and a third is alleged to have been an agent, perhaps for RUC Special Branch. Similarly, no person has ever been brought to justice for the Ludlow murder, even though prime suspects were identified many years ago.
Go to Profile, prepared by a member of the Ludlow family.
Launch of Joe Tiernan's book The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings and the Murder Triangle
Go to Journalists' Revelations.
Go to The Victims Commission Calls for a Private Inquiry.
Go to Feedback Form.
Go to Bulletin Board.
Go to Map of North Louth Area.
See also Relatives' Press Release, June 2000.
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Copyright
© 2001 the Ludlow family. All rights reserved.
Revised: January 13, 2003
.