Family of hit-and-run victim Shane O'Farrell meet with justice minister to demand inquiry into his death

Shane O'Farrell was cycling home when he was struck by a car in a hit and run in August 2011.

The family of hit-and-run victim Shane O’Farrell has demanded a public inquiry into his death during a meeting with the minister for justice, and asked “why law and order was not applied” to the man who killed him.

The Monaghan man’s parents Jim and Lucia and his four sisters met with Jim O’Callaghan on Friday morning to press for a public inquiry into Shane’s death.

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

The following day, the Lithuanian surrendered himself to gardaí. 

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On a number of occasions in the two years before the incident, he had been granted conditional bail, but it had not been revoked despite broken conditions.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

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, speaking after meeting with Mr O’Callaghan, Shane’s mother Lucia told the Irish Examiner there was nothing in the scoping report that answered their questions.

Of the meeting with Mr O’Callaghan, she said: “We went through our various concerns regarding bail, warrants, suspended sentences and all the issues around why this man was at liberty. 

"We want many answers on why law and order was not applied to this man."

Lucia O'Farrell: 'What we are looking for is something to look at why the sequence of events were allowed happen that led to Shane having such a violent death.' File picture: Courtpix

The family asked all its "unanswered questions on how could he get bail and be out reoffending and that nobody objected to bail", she said.

“What we are looking for is something to look at why the sequence of events were allowed happen that led to Shane having such a violent death. 

Shane was entitled to be on the road but that man should not have been on the road.

The meeting follows comments in the Dáil on Thursday in which the minister said he was keeping an “open mind” regarding whether there should be a public inquiry into the death.

As an opposition TD, Mr O’Callaghan had himself moved a motion in 2018 which sought an inquiry into the Mr O'Farrell's death.

On Thursday, he said he could not ignore the 415-page report from the scoping inquiry which ruled out the need for a public inquiry, but said “further engagement” was required on it.

“The recommendations need to be assessed by the justice committee,” Mr O'Callaghan said.