Ahern to raise Ludlow murder with Hain

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern is to raise the 1976 loyalist murder of Seamus Ludlow with the Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain, it emerged today.

The family of the Dundalk forestry worker killed in May 1976 had asked the Mr Ahern to find out why nobody was ever been prosecuted for the crime.

The Government is still studying legal advice on the Barron report into the murder and is expected to refer it to the Oireachtas Justice Committee in the near future.

A spokesman for Mr Ahern said today: “The minister has always insisted that the complete truth must come out in relation to the entire Seamus Ludlow case.

“He will raise the matter with the Northern Ireland Secretary at the earliest opportunity they have to meet.”

Mr Ahern is travelling to New York on Sunday to prepare for the UN World Summit next week and is not due back in Ireland until September 19.

However he is expected to raise the matter with Mr Hain soon after.

The Government is still considering the legal advice it got with the report by Mr Justice Henry Barron into Mr Ludlow’s murder.

A Government spokesperson: “The report will be brought to Cabinet in the near future.

“After that it will go to an Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights which will then publish it.”

The inquest into Mr Ludlow’s murder was told earlier this week that the then RUC arrested and questioned four men in relation to the crime in 1998.

Two of them independently gave evidence of how and where the murder was committed and admitted their role.

However, the Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland decided not to press charges.

The inquest was also told that in 1979, the Gardaí had the names and addresses of the same four men but Garda Headquarters didn’t allow investigating gardaí to carry out further inquiries.

The Ludlow family has always claimed there has been a cover-up on both sides of the border following the murder.