The Irish News, 11 March 2003:

Family 'cautious' over inquest progress

By Valerie Robinson

THE family of Seamus Ludlow are still awaiting official confirmation of a meeting with the coroner due to conduct an inquest into the forestry worker’s death.

Louth County Coroner Ronan Maguire told The Irish News last week that he planned to meet the relatives and give them access to a Garda report on the murder.

Mr Ludlow's nephew Michael Donegan yesterday revealed that the family had not yet been contacted by the coroner's office.

"As yet I have heard no more about the proposed Ludlow family meeting with the coroner. . .It appears that we will be contacted through our family solicitor," he said.

Mr Donegan was speaking as the Celtic League welcomed news that Mr Maguire was making progress in preparations for the inquest.

Secretary general Bernard Moffatt said that the league continued to support the campaign for an enquiry into Mr Ludlow's murder by loyalists as well as pressing the Irish government "to be more open" and the British authorities in the north to "adopt a more positive stance".

Mr Moffatt, however, urged the Ludlow family to remain "cautious" in their response to any news of progress in the case, adding: "Indeed they should be cautious because it has become quite clear from the machinations down through the years to obstruct explanation and bringing to justice the killers of Seamus Ludlow that a cover-up at the highest level has been undertaken."

The campaigner said that in the present climate of peace and reconciliation there were "vested interests within both the Irish and British administrations which do not wish to have too much scrutiny focused on the activities of the loyalist "commandos", armed and supported by British intelligence, which waged a dirty war of killings and bombings in the south of Ireland in the 1970s".

Seamus Ludlow was shot dead in a lane close to his Mountpleasant home, Co Louth, in May 1976 after accepting a lift in a northern-registered car.

It is widely believed that a loyalist killer gang from the Red Hand Commando, including two serving members of the UDR, was behind the murder.

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Please visit our Justice for Seamus Ludlow Websites:
http://www.seamusludlow.com/index.html
http://www.adon89.care4free.net/index.htm
http://freespace.virgin.net/m.donegan/index.htm

 

and an associated site for a campaign that has our support:
http://www.adon89.care4free.net/dundalk_bombing/index.htm

 

Also visit: Relatives for Justice at http://www.relativesforjustice.com/
the Pat Finucane Centre at http://www.serve.com/pfc/ and
British Irish Rights Watch at http://www.birw.org/