'They are doing to us what they did to the Stardust victims': Family of Shane O'Farrell renew call for public inquiry

Shane O'Farrell was cycling home when he was struck by a car driven by Zigimantas Gridziuska near Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, in August 2011.

A decision to refer a scoping inquiry report into the fatal hit and run of Shane O’Farrell to the Oireachtas justice committee 13 years after his death is “completely disingenuous”, according to his mother.

On the evening of August 2, 2011, the 23-year-old was cycling home when he was struck by a car driven by Zigimantas Gridziuska near Carrickmacross in Co Monaghan in a hit and run.

The following day, the Lithuanian surrendered himself to gardaí. However, the O’Farrell family feel he should never have been at liberty to kill Shane.

On a number of occasions in the two years before the incident, he had been granted conditional bail but it had not been revoked despite broken conditions.

At the time of Mr O'Farrell’s death, he was on bail in connection with a number of separate incidents.

The O'Farrell family has sought a public inquiry to establish how Zigimantas Gridziuska was not in jail on the day of their son's death.

Two separate Gsoc examinations of different elements of the case were carried out, but a public inquiry has never taken place.

A scoping exercise of the case carried out by retired judge Gerard Haughton was published in July 2023, and a key finding was an inquiry was unwarranted.

However, in July, Sinn Féin, Labour, and Independent TDs brought a private members motion calling for the immediate establishment of “an independent public inquiry into the death of Shane O'Farrell and the actions of State agencies before and after his death in respect of this case”.

Multiple failures

The motion said there were multiple failures which led to Zigimantas Gridziuska being at liberty on the date of Shane O’Farrell’s death. It added it was “now necessary to have the actions of An Garda Síochána, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Gsoc, and the Courts Service examined in order to establish how such failures took place, including the information sharing systems between those agencies”.

Following the motion, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said she would write to the justice committee to ask it to look at the recommendations and conclusions of the scoping report. 

However, in response to a parliamentary question last week, it emerged Ms McEntee had not yet written to the committee. She said: “It is my intention to do so shortly”.

Mr O'Farrell’s mother Lucia said she was not surprised the letter had not yet been written but she was frustrated the matter was being referred to the justice committee instead of a public inquiry being ordered.

“It is completely disingenuous and is a retrograde step," she said. 

"They are doing to us what they did to the Stardust victims. There is absolutely disrespect by the Department of Justice to Shane and our family. As citizens of this State and as tax-paying people, Shane deserves better. He studied by the law, he lived by the law. What we want is a full independent public inquiry. The longer they delay something, they weaken it.”