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Welcome to the Seventh page for The Seamus Ludlow Truth and Justice Campaign.
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This website and the campaign for truth and justice have been set up by members of the Ludlow family. Other pages are provided for your information. Please click on the links provided in the sliding menu to the left, and on similar menus on other pages. Further links can be accessed in the text and at the bottom of the page. This page was last updated: 20/03/01
This is a photograph of Seamus Ludlow (47), Thistlecross, Mountpleasant, Dundalk, County Louth, who was abducted and murdered by UDR/Red Hand Commando on 2 May 1976. His killers have never been brought to justice.
Seamus Ludlow's Last Day.
Seamus Ludlow, a Catholic bachelor living with his elderly mother and other relatives near Dundalk, County Louth, was abducted and murdered after he left a Dundalk public house around midnight of the 1st and 2nd May 1976. Seamus was an innocent victim of sectarian killers who may only have been concerned that he was a Catholic.
To this day Seamus
Ludlow's Loyalist/UDR killers have never been brought to justice. The Ludlow
family suspects that they were protected by the Gardai and the
RUC who may only have been concerned about the safety of an agent
within the murder gang. The Ludlow family is appalled that lies
were spread about this innocent man, merely to give cover to his
alleged killers, who were permitted to kill again.
In this photograph a group of uniformed and plain clothes gardai are pictured in the lane on the day after Seamus Ludlow's murder. The Ludlow family does not know what they were looking for, but certainly it was not the killers of this unfortunate man. The photograph links to further information about this aborted investigation and a recent internal Gardai inquiry into its conduct. The Ludlow family now knows that the murder inquiry was suspended after only three weeks. The Ludlow family was never informed of this disgraceful development.
Despite the fact that the UDR/Red Hand Commando murder gang was clearly identified in 1979, if not much earlier, elements within the Gardai and the British security services circulated totally false rumours that Seamus Ludlow was killed by the IRA because he was an informer. These vile lies persisted until 1998, when the four prime suspects, all Loyalists from north Down, were arrested by the RUC.
The Ludlow family has attempted to piece together the events of that fateful day in May 1976 when an innocent man unfortunately stumbled across an evil gang who saw him as just another Catholic victim. Nothing occurred during the months, weeks and days leading up to Seamus Ludlow's murder that would give any cause for suspicion suspicion that Seamus was anything other than a random Catholic victim of a Loyalist death squad, or the victim of mistaken identity, mistakenly taken instead of another intended victim on a death list.
Nothing happened earlier during Seamus Ludlow's last day to question either of these possibilities. It seems certain that Seamus Ludlow's killers had no idea who he was, they had never met him before. It also seems certain that if not he then some other unfortunate would have met his death that night in Dundalk.
Seamus Ludlow spent his last day on earth, Saturday 1st. May, 1976, as he had so often done before. For Seamus Ludlow this was a day like any other. He went to work early that morning at the late Danny Phillips' timber yard at Ravensdale, with his brother-in-law and close friend Tommy Fox (now also deceased) in Ravensdale Forest.
Seamus Ludlow returned to his life-long home at Thistlecross, Mountpleasant, just north of Dundalk on the N1 road, around 1.30pm. His married sister Mrs. Nan Sharkey was surprised to see him home so early because he normally went for an afternoon drink with Tommy Fox at the nearby Border Inn.
After his sister made a meal for Seamus, he went to Dundalk around 3.00pm, promising to return as he usually did before the main family meal. (More about Seamus Ludlow's last day can be accessed in a Profile, prepared by a member of the Ludlow family circle, which can be found on an other page.)
Seamus Ludlow never did return home. His body was discovered the
following afternoon lying on top of a ditch just off the local
Bog Road, near Ballymascanlan Hotel, and in the vicinity of the ancient Proleek
Dolmen, no more than half a mile
from his Thistlecross home. He had been shot three times at point
blank range. One bullet had passed through his right lung and out
through his arm. A burn mark on his right hand indicated that
Seamus had raised his hand to fend off a bullet which went
through his heart - and was probably the fatal bullet. There were reports
in the Sunday Press
that there was about £7.00 in his
pockets when his body was found, and this indicated that robbery
was not the motive for his violent death.
Right: In this
Sunday Press photograph, Jimmy Fox is seen standing in the
lane off the Bog Road where the dead body of his murdered uncle
Seamus Ludlow was found only a few days earlier. (This picture is from a cutting kindly
supplied by Monsignor Raymond Murray.) The photograph links to further
information about the late Seamus Ludlow's family background.
The inquest which was conducted at Dundalk Courthouse on 19 August
1976 by Dr T. E. Scully, the coroner, returned a verdict that
death was due to gunshot wounds. The inquest also concluded, on
the medical evidence of the State Pathologist Dr J. F. A.
Harbinson, that Seamus Ludlow could not have shot himself.
It was also revealed that the shots were fired before death and the absence of mud on his clean shoes indicated that the body of Seamus Ludlow had been dumped in the muddy lane. This is consistent with the account now available: an account given by an alleged witness, Paul Hosking, who claims that Seamus was shot while he was sitting in the back of his killers' car.
Seamus Ludlow's body had been discovered by a tourist who was walking his dog along the Bog Road on Sunday 2 May 1976. Earlier that morning, Mr.s Nan Sharkey, on discovering that her brother had not returned home, became concerned because he had never stayed out before.
He would always return home as promised. As the family was worried about Seamus' safety, his two married brothers Paddy (who is now also deceased) and Kevin, who both lived in Dundalk, set out to search for him. After a while they stumbled across a Garda roadcheck on the Bog Road where they were informed that a body had been found. A few minutes later Kevin Ludlow identified the remains as those of his brother. Kevin made a brief statement of this fact which was admitted to the subsequennt inquest in his absence.
Very little is known of Seamus Ludlow's movements on the night of his murder. What little that is known has been pieced together from a number of sources, including people who met him on that fateful night. He was seen in a number of pubs in the Bridge Street-Lisdoo area of Dundalk and it was reported that he was also seen hitching a lift home after closing time at Smith's Garage on the Newry Road just north of Dundalk.
Seamus was also seen a short while earlier in the Lisdoo Arms public house. This was an enjoyable evening spent in the company of good friends, having an enjoyable drink after a week of hard work, just simple pleasures which made life brighter for a quiet man with simple tastes.
Strangely, there was no Gardai checkpoint ouside the Lisdoo Arms on the night that Seamus Ludlow was abducted and murdered. Throughout the troubles in the North, the cross-roads outside the Lisdoo Arms public house was the site of regular checkpoint activity, but not on the night of Seamus Ludlow's death.
There is an allegation, reported in his book Monaghan County of Intrigue (1979), by the late Michael Cunningham, that the Gardai were given the name and description of a British soldier who was in the Lisdoo Arms at around the same time that Seamus Ludlow was also seen drinking there. The Gardai were also said to have been given the registration number of a car with three men inside which was parked outside the Lisdoo Arms.
It was only in 1998 that further information about Seamus Ludlow's movements on his final night emerged with the public testimony of one of those involved, a loyalist from Comber, north Down, named Paul Hosking who claims to have witnessed the abduction and murder of Seamus Ludlow, by three Red Hand Commandos, two of whom were also members of the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR).
It also emerged that both the RUC and the Gardai had known of the killers' true identities since at least 1979, if not much earlier. The Ludlow family has been told that the RUC and the Gardai even have an account of the conversation that took place in the killers' yellow two-door Datsun car on the night of Seamus Ludlow's murder.
Jimmy Sharkey, a nephew of the late Seamus Ludlow, stands in the lane where his uncle's body was discovered on 2 May 1976. He is facing the new memorial plaque at the precise spot where the body was found. The photograph links to a Profile on the murder and the family's search for justice and truth that was especially prepared by Jimmy.
Seamus Ludlow's loyalist/British Army killers were never brought to justice. Indeed, his family have had to endure a campaign of lies, innuendo and smears mounted on both sides of the Irish border which protected the killers from the justice which they deserved. This was done by portraying the innocent victim as some kind of despicable person who may have brought his cruel fate upon himself. Effectively, Seamus Ludlow was treated as the only guilty party in the crime while his evil killers were permitted to kill again and again. The decision of the Northern Ireland DPP on 15 October 1999 confirms that Seamus Ludlow's killers remain above the law.
Seamus Ludlow's family and the public at large were told that he was an informer for the British Crown Forces in the Six Counties and that he was killed by the IRA for that reason. Despite official denials of involvement made by the Republican Movement, both locally and nationally, the smears persisted for 22 years and have appeared in print. Members of the Ludlow family were approached personally by local representatives of the Republican Movement who assured them that, after a thorough investigation, they could confirm that the IRA was not involved.
Members of the family were also implicated in the murder of Seamus Ludlow by elements within the Garda. Despite these claims no locals were arrested for the murder of Seamus Ludlow and, as it has only recently been revealed, the Garda actually suspended their murder investigation after only a few weeks- without, of course, ever informing the Ludlow family of this suspension.
A reconstruction of Seamus Ludlow's last few minutes was featured in Ulster Television's UTV Live Insight documentary programme, which was broadcast on 25 October 1999. In the dramatisation, based on the account given by the former UDA member Paul Hosking from Comber, north County Down, to journalist Ed Moloney, an actor in the role of Seamus Ludlow, is seen thumbing a lift on the road just north of Dundalk. A sports-type two-door yellow Datsun, with a driver and three passengers, stops and the front seat passenger gets out, and lifts the seat which allows the back seat passenger to also exit the vehicle. The man playing Seamus Ludlow, after an evening spent drinking, and apparently quite drunk, then gets into the back of the car followed by the rear seat passenger and the front seat passenger.
In this reconstruction, a few minutes pass and, after passing the drunk man's house, the car is seen reversing into a lane. The rear seat passenger, Paul Hosking, asks to go to the toilet, and while he is relieving himself, shots ring out, and the front seat passenger is seen pointing a gun at the abducted man Seamus Ludlow, who was utterly defenceless.
The Irish independent channel TV3 featured a similar reconstruction on its 20/20 programme, using an actor's voice to speak the words of Paul Hosking which were shown on screen. Similarly, an actor was used to voice a statement submitted by another man "Mambo" who was alleged by Hosking to have shot Seamus Ludlow.
The Ludlow family believes that the Irish and British authorities saw Seamus Ludlow's murder as a prime candidate for a cover-up because he was a bachelor without obvious wealth or influence. His personal circumstances and the fact that he had no wife or children ensured that awkward questions could be avoided. But, Seamus had a loving family, three brothers and three sisters, many nephews and nieces, who never lost hope and never accepted the stories that were being spread to denigrate the man that they knew and loved.
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Copyright
© 2001 the Ludlow family. All rights reserved.
Revised: March 20, 2001
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