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Welcome to the Ludlow family's website for the Seamus Ludlow Truth and Justice Campaign.
Last updated: 15/01/03
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A photograph of Seamus Ludlow, a 47-year-old Catholic forestry worker, of Thistlecross, Mountpleasant, Dundalk, County Louth, who was abducted and murdered after leaving a Dundalk public house by UDR/Red Hand Commando in County Louth, on 2 May 1976. The cursor reveals an earlier photograph of Mr. Ludlow.
Four Loyalists Arrested, February 1998.
For more than twenty years the Gardai repeatedly told the Ludlow family that Seamus Ludlow was murdered by the IRA, even though there was evidence in their own files dating from 1979, if not before, which identified four Loyalist suspects. The Ludlow family have the legitimate right to know why lies were circulated about Seamus Ludlow by the force that was charged with bringing his killers to justice. Why did the Gardai never move against these men? Who were they trying to protect - certainly not Seamus Ludlow or his family, or the wider community in Dundalk?
Four Loyalists from the north Down area to the east of Belfast were arrested by the RUC on 17 February 1998 in connection with the murder of Seamus Ludlow and they were held for questioning at Castlereagh Holding Centre, Belfast. Among these men was Paul Hosking, who claims to be a witness rather than an active participant in the murder of Seamus Ludlow. Another man arrested in connection with the Ludlow murder was a 45-year-old nicknamed "Mambo", who was arrested at his home in Staffordshire, England. The other two men, both former members of the UDR, and whose names have not yet been released to the public, were arrested in north Down.
While their names are known, the Ludlow family website will not reveal the names of "Mambo" or the two former UDR members. Nor will this site name those who are suspected of aiding their escape from justice. Naming of the suspects and their protectors is not a necessary requirement here. The Ludlow family hope that such information will emerge from future criminal proceedings or from public inquiries into all that occurred before, during and after the foul murder of Seamus Ludlow. In a recent development, journalist Joe Tiernan has named "Mambo" and published his photograph in his book The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings and the Murder Triangle. (published December 2002)
The four men were released without charge and investigation files were sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for Northern Ireland on 23 October 1998. The DPP spent a whole year considering these files, and on 15 October 1999, to the dismay of the Ludlow family and all who hoped for justice to finally have a chance of catching up with the killers of Seamus Ludlow, the family was given the devastating news that none of the suspects were to face prosecution. Justice was turned on its head once more.
Paul
Hosking, photographed here, has come forward to deny his involvement in the
murder of Seamus Ludlow. He admits to being present, with three members of the
outlawed Red Hand Commando murder gang, at the scene of the crime but is adamant
that he was only a witness. Click on the photograph to link to the text of his
interview with Ed Moloney, for the Sunday Tribune, which can be accessed
on the website of the Pat Finucane Centre, Derry.
The names of the four suspects are all known to the Ludlow family. One of the alleged killers who was arrested, later emerged publicly in May 1999 to deny his alleged involvement in the murder of Seamus Ludlow. The killers' involvement with the British Army, and in further sectarian killings in the Six Counties, which should have been prevented, makes the actions of the Gardai and the RUC shameful. It has been alleged that the actual killer of Seamus Ludlow was an agent for the British forces, and that he would have informed his handlers of his involvement in the crime very soon after it was committed. It is also claimed that he murdered at least two other people in the North of Ireland soon after the murder of Seamus Ludlow. This opens up the possibility that he was permitted to remain free and his victims were expendable merely because he was otherwise useful to his handlers.
The Gardai now privately admit that the names of the Loyalist suspects had been in their files for many years, even while they were constantly lying to the Ludlow family, telling them that the IRA were responsible and that there were no other suspects. The family suspects that the names were supplied to the Garda very soon after the crime was committed, but certainly no later than 1979 when Chief Superintendent John Courtney, now retired, travelled with a colleague from the Dublin murder squad to RUC Headquarters in Belfast, where they were handed a dossier on the killers involved.
This file, according to a report by Tom Brady, Security Editor, in the Dublin Irish Independent newspaper, 19 May 1999, was taken back to Dublin, where it allegedly crossed the desks of five Chief Superintendents and an Assistant Garda Commissioner, but no action was taken. These recent revelations confirm what members of the family have long suspected - that the authorities were covering-up vital information and deliberately smearing the memory of an innocent victim. It amounts to nothing less than the protection of killers at the expense of an innocent victim and his family whose rights counted for nothing.
Pictured here
is Belfast journalist Ed Moloney who first interviewed Paul
Hosking for the Sunday Tribune newspaper of 8 March 1998. Mr. Moloney has
written several articles about the murder of Seamus Ludlow - as well as the murder
of the Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane. Just click on the photograph to link to
Mr. Moloney's Sunday Tribune articles on the murder of Seamus Ludlow, on
the website for the Pat Finucane Centre.
With the aid of journalists like Joe Tiernan and Ed Moloney the Ludlow family circle has learned that the original Garda murder investigation was suspended after only three weeks and worse still that the RUC certainly, and the Garda, probably also, knew of the true identities of the Loyalist killers of Seamus Ludlow very soon after the crime was committed.
The events of recent months, including the failure of the North's DPP to bring prosecutions against any of the suspects, two of whom had signed incriminating statements while in RUC custody, have done nothing to dent the Ludlow family's growing cynicism and resentment of the authorities in Dublin and Belfast who have done everything possible to pervert justice and to protect the dark secrets which have been covered-up since 1976.
Return to Home Page.
Go to Journalists' Revelations.
Go to Paul Hosking's Account.
Go to "Mambo" Speaks Out.
Go to Chronology.
Go to Feedback form.
Go to Guest Book
The Dundalk Democrat 21 December 2002 reports the publication of Joe Tiernan's book The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings and the Murder Triangle.
Go to Map of north Louth Area.
Copyright
© 2003 the Ludlow family. All rights reserved.
Revised: January 15, 2003
.