Speaking afterwards, the family of Mr Ludlow demanded a public inquiry into the murder, saying the inquest had raised many unanswered questions. 

Earlier, a former Garda Chief Superintendent told the inquest that two men questioned by the then RUC about the murder of a Co Louth man both gave independent and accurate details about the killing.

These men had been identified to gardaí 19 years earlier as the killers of Mr Ludlow, but when the information was passed on to Garda Headquarters, nothing happened.

In 1996, then Chief Superintendent Ted Murphy was asked by the Garda Commissioner to re-examine the case surrounding the murder of Mr Ludlow.

Mr Ludlow was murdered by a gang of four loyalists just outside Dundalk in May 1976. An inquest was held shortly afterwards but the Attorney General in 2002 directed a new inquest be held as a result of new information.

Yesterday former Chief Superintendent John Courtney told the inquest that he was given the names and address of four men by the RUC in 1979 whom he believed had carried out the murder.

He passed that on to Garda Headquarters but despite his request for authority to proceed, it was not forthcoming.

Former Chief Supt Murphy today said that in 1996 he contacted the RUC and the informant who had given information about the four killers.

The four loyalists were arrested and taken here to Castlereagh RUC Station for questioning. Two of them, he said, provided independent and accurate details about the murder of Mr Ludlow.

They described how the shooting took place in their car and how they left the body. However, no charges were ever brought against the men.