THE FAMILY of an Irishman murdered 41 years ago by loyalist paramilitaries have vowed to continue their fight for justice after losing an appeal for a State inquiry.
Seamus Ludlow, 47, a forestry worker from Co. Louth, was found dead in a ditch with a number of bullet wounds on the Cooley peninsula on May 1, 1976.
Mr Ludlow’s family launched legal proceedings this year to force the Minister of Justice to open an inquiry into his death.
At the High Court in Dublin today, Ms Justice Mary Faherty ruled that there was “no right” to an inquiry and the courts cannot force the executive to set one up, despite the obvious “human tragedy” involved.
The Ludlow family have long maintained that Seamus was an innocent victim of a loyalist death squad made up of a Red Hand Commando and two members of the Ulster Defence Regiment.
They claim Gardaí were complicit in spreading false rumours that Mr Ludlow was killed for being an IRA informant and failed to follow up on information provided by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in Northern Ireland.
They also say that some family members had prior knowledge that the killing was planned.
The family wanted the High Court to declare that a decision by the Justice Minister not to launch an inquiry was unlawful, but were denied.
Justice Faherty said it was "not for the court to stand in the shoes of the decision maker".
She said the decision was made after considering whether "there has been an effective investigation into a homicide or suspicious death, not the ascertaining of historical truths".
Despite losing their appeal, the Ludlow family have insisted that their fight "is far from over".
No one has ever been charged in connection with the murder and Mr Ludlow’s relatives have long believed he was killed after being mistaken for a senior member of the IRA by either loyalist or British fighters.
An Oirechtas committee established a decade ago recommended that two commissions or inquests be held into the death, after a judge slammed An Garda Siochana’s botched investigation.
The RUC – predecessor to the modern PSNI – told the names of four loyalists suspected of being involved in Mr Ludlow’s murder to Gardaí in 1979.
Nevertheless, the information was never pursued in the 41 years since the innocent Irishman's brutal killing.
