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Welcome to the Ludlow family's website of the Seamus Ludlow Truth and Justice Campaign.
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The Ludlow family has produced this website to help spread the truth about Seamus Ludlow's murder and the lies that were spread about him. You are directed to links to other pages in the sliding menu on the left, within the main text as well as those at the bottom of the page.
A photograph of Seamus Ludlow (47), Thistlecross, Mountpleasant, Dundalk, County Louth, who was abducted and murdered south of the Irish border by UDR/Red Hand Commando on 1/2 May 1976.
Michael Cunningham's Investigation, 1978..
Seamus Ludlow was abducted and murdered, shot three times at point blank range, by members of the British Army's locally recruited and overwhelmingly Protestant and Loyalist Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) and the outlawed Red Hand Commando murder gang on the night of 1st and 2nd May 1976. He had been innocently walking home from a Dundalk pub when he was lifted by his killers, who have never been brought to justice.
Almost immediately and for many years after there was an attempt to justify Seamus Ludlow's murder with totally false claims that the IRA must have shot Seamus because he was an informer. Such lies caused great distress to the Ludlow family, who now know that the Gardai knew very soon after Seamus Ludlow's murder that his killers were Loyalists, yet they persisted in telling cruel lies to the Ludlow family. Indeed, they were still telling lies to Kevin Ludlow, Seamus Ludlow's only surviving brother, only a year before the emergence of new information in 1998.
The Gardai clearly have a lot of explaining to do. Why did they do nothing to bring Seamus Ludlow's killers to justice? Why was the murder investigation stopped after only three weeks? Who were they protecting? Whose interest were they serving? Why did they lie to the Ludlow family? Why did they spread lies about Seamus Ludlow? Will they ever be fully truthful about their abuses of power and their shameful failure to do their duty in the Seamus Ludow investigation? Will those officers still on duty and those now on pension be brought to account for their incompetence, their dishonesty and their neglect of duty?
That the Gardai were aware of suspicions of British and Loyalist involvement in the murder of Seamus Ludlow in 1976 there can be no doubt. Indeed, the late Michael Cunningham, Tanatallon, Donegal, and a native of County Tyrone, who carried out an investigation in 1978, found evidence of this.
Mr. Cunningham wrote a number of books about the northern situation during the 1970s, and he had a particular interest in the covert activities of the British Army along the border. Among his books was The Nairac Affair, which dealt with events in the south Armagh and north Louth area in 1976 and 1977. He was intrigued and deeply troubled by many of the questions left unanswered by the failure to bring Seamus Ludlow's killers to justice and he carried out his own private investigation in an attempt to finally establish the truth.
In his book Monaghan County of Intrigue, which was published in 1979, Mr. Cunningham had this to say:
"The response of the public to appeals by the Gardai for information following the finding of the body were swift and to the point. The description and name of a member of the British Army who was in the Lisdoo Arms on the night of the murder were given to the Gardai. So too was the registration number of a car seen outside the premises at approximately 11.40 on that night. The Gardai were further informed that there were three men in the car while it was outside the premises. No known effort was made by the authorities to publicise this information. Significantly photographs of the eight SAS men who were arrested four days later south of the border were not published.."
The Ludlow family
want to know exactly what the Garda were told about the alleged
presence of an identified British soldier who was reported to be
inside the Lisdoo Arms public house around the time that Seamus
Ludlow was there on the night of his abduction and murder. What
were they told about a car parked nearby with three occupants
inside? What action if any did they take about these reports? This photograph
links to the Pat Finucane Centre's website, where several of journalist Ed
Moloney's reports from the Sunday Tribune can be viewed.
Just like the sad experience of members of the Ludlow family locally, Mr. Cunningham's best efforts to uncover the truth were thwarted by the Gardai in 1978. His requests for details of Seamus Ludlow's inquest and of the calibre of bullets removed from the victim's body were fobbed off. An item of his correspondence may be accessed by clicking on the links at the bottom of this page.
Mr. Cunningham was perhaps the first writer to record many of the allegations being made by the Ludlow family 23 years after the murder of Seamus Ludlow, particularly about the family's exclusion from the inquest in August 1976. It appears that Mr. Cunningham was given the run around. His account is worth recording at some length. Mr. Cunningham wrote:
". . . I went during August 1978, to the County Coroner, Dr. Scully's premises near Clogherhead in County Louth and asked for details of the inquest on Seamus Ludlow. His secretary informed me that Dr. Scully was not the Coroner at the time and that I should go seek the information from Dr. Collins in Drogheda. I did so, but was told by Mr. Collins that all the files were with the man in Clogherhead. He suggested that I go to Dundalk Garda Station. The next day I went to the Garda station, but the only man who might be of help was out and there was no way of knowing when he might be back! The Garda I spoke to also informed me that the crime had not been committed in the Dundalk Garda district but in the Dromad district. I went there, but the man who had dealt with the case was on leave and the others could be of no help. I went home with no official details of the case.
"Subsequently, I wrote to the Coroner asking for details of the inquest, but did not even have the courtesy of an acknowledgement. I asked an acquaintance, who taught for 27 years in Dundalk, to try and get me the details I sought. He too was given the run around and again could not even get the date of the inquest. The Seamus Ludlow case became interesting and sinister.
"On Tuesday, 7th November 1978, I went back to Dundalk and asked in the courthouse about the date of the inquest. They knew nothing about it, but told mje to go to the office of the Garda Superintendent in the local police station, as it was his office which dealt with inquests. Back again to the Garda station, where I was told that Superintendent Fahy was out and could not be contacted. One of the first questions I was asked was, "Are you from the press?" When I replied "No", the garda asked why I wanted information about the inquest. He told me he could not give me any information about the case and suggested that I write to the Superintendent. As a last resort I again asked for the date on which the inquest was held, but without success. This lack of cooperation was frustrating but it sent me to the scene of the crime. Locals told me that a bullet had been found when Seamus Ludlow's body was removed from the bank or hedge. They believed other bullets had been recovered from the body and suggested I visit the home of one of the deceased's married sisters, Eileen Fox.
"The story here was both sad and revealing, giving me an insight into the politics of law enforcement during the Coalition period in Government. Like the rest of the family, Mrs. Fox was not at the inquest for the very good reason that she had not been informed of the day or hour. Neither was her sister, Nan Sharkey, with whom the deceased had resided prior to his murder, nor his two brothers who worked in Dundalk. The only member of the family to get any type of notification was Kevin Ludlow, who was away at work in Newry when notification of the inquest was left at his house. It would appear that the authorities did not want any member of the family present. The Minister of Defence, Mr. Donegan, did call and sympathised with the mother and other members of the family of the murdered man. That in essence was the response of officialdom to the death of a loyal worker for the Fine Gael party. . .
"I wrote to the Government Information Office to find out if I was entitled in law to purchase copies of inquest reports. My request was transferred to the Department of Foreign Affairs, who subsequently informed me that I was entitled to puchase inquest reports at £1.43 per document. Armed with this knowledge, I wrote again to the Coroner and enclosed a cheque to cover all reports of the Ludlow inquest. I also wrote to Superintendent Fahy in Dundalk Garda station asking some questions relating to my experiences and also a question about the calibre of bullets used in the murder. Two replies arrived on the same day, but the key factor of the calibre of the bullets was missing from both. The reason Fahy gave for failing to give the information was: "Because this matter is still under investigation, I am unable to disclose this information". The Coroner could not give the details because there was no ballistics report produced by the Gardai at the inquest. The report did disclose that Dr Scully was in fact Coroner at the time of the inquest. It was his first inquest.
"The post-mortem report by the State Pathologist, John F. A. Harbinson, disclosed that the deceased had been shot three times, and three bullets were recovered. No information was given which would indicate whether they were fired from the same gun. The report did tell of powder marks on the deceased's left hand and on his coat, which led the pathologist to conclude that the shots were fired from close range. After dealing with the wounds and clothes the report continued: "I also viewed the shoes, which looked remarkably clean in view of the muddy nature of the lane in which the body was found.
"There were no reports of traces of blood on the road or the lane, thus indicating that the shooting happened elsewhere, and the body was transported to the spot where it was found. If this was correct, all the more reason for forensic tests to be carried out on the cars and clothing of the armed men arrested in the same general area of County Louth four days after the body was found. . .".
During the course of his investigation in 1978
Mr. Cunningham had regular contacts with Mrs. Eileen Fox, a sister
of Seamus Ludlow, and her husband, Tommy, now deceased. He paid
many visits to their home at Mountpleasant and Mrs. Fox remembers
that he was very interested in the case at that time. He knew
that there was something strange about the manner in which the
Gardai had conducted the murder inquiry and the inquest in 1976
and he did his utmost to get at the truth. Mrs. Fox recalls that
Mr. Cunningham was arrested by the Gardai shortly after his book
was published in 1979.
This photograph was taken at the murder scene on the day after the body of Seamus Ludlow was discovered. Seen here are members of the Dublin murder squad and Gardai from Dundalk. Click on the photograph to link to information on the recent internal Garda inquiry into the conduct of the aborted murder investigation.
In recent times a member of the Ludlow family has been in contact with Mrs. Catriona Cunningham, widow of the late author whose book has been extensively quoted here, and she has kindly searched through his papers to see if anything of interest has survived. Mrs. Cunningham has made available some of Mr. Cunningham's correspondence with Superintendent Richard Fahy at Dundalk Garda station, in which he falsely claimed that the family were notified in advance of the day and date of the inquest. Her support and assistance has been deeply appreciated.
Photographed above is the murder scene in the lane off the Bog Road. The photograph was taken on the 3 May 1976, the day after Seamus Ludlow's body was discovered. Standing second from the right, in plain clothes, is the now retired Detective John Courtney, who in 1979 brought an RUC investigation file naming at least three of the Loyalist suspects, from Belfast to Dublin.
Ludlow family excluded from inquest.
Magill, April 1999: Murder, Collusion and Lies.
A Fresh Inquest for Seamus Ludlow
Map of Seamus Ludlow's home area.
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Revised: January 18, 2003 .