The Belfast Telegraph, 8 November 2005:

Victims group questions report into loyalist killing

By Michael McHugh

08 November 2005

A key finding of the Barron Report into the murder of Seamus Ludlow by loyalists does not "hold water", a victims' group spokeswoman said today.

Margaret Urwin from the Justice For The Forgotten organisation, which represents people in the Republic who have suffered from bombings and shootings, queried Irish judge Henry Barron's findings on the failure of gardai to interview four suspects in the Ludlow murder.

The RUC disclosed the suspects' identities to the southern authorities in 1979 and Mr Justice Barron found that the "only credible explanation" was because they did not want to set a precedent of closer co-operation with the RUC during interviews.

Ms Urwin said she did not accept the reasons given in the Barron Report for the quashing of Garda Detective Superintendent Dan Murphy's request for permission to speak to the suspects by his superiors in Garda headquarters.

"I don't accept that, not for one moment, because there were precedents for following that sort of action," she said.

"It would not be the first time that gardai went north to interview suspects. I think it just doesn't hold water at all.

"The Garda and RUC were already co-operating in a lot of ways at that time. High-level meetings had taken place."

The 47-year-old forestry worker was picked up in a car driven by loyalists from the centre of Dundalk, ostensibly to give him a lift home.

He was shot dead and his body discovered in a laneway close to his home north of the town.

The Barron Report found that Mr Ludlow was the victim of a random, sectarian killing.

He was not connected with the IRA or any other illegal or state organisation. No one has ever been convicted of his murder, although the four suspects were also named under parliamentary privilege.

They were: Paul Hosking; James Fitzsimmons; Richard Long and Samuel Carroll.

Hosking told the Belfast Telegraph at the weekend that he was innocent of the murder but he did admit that he was present when the victim was killed in May 1976.

Ms Urwin said the controversy surrounding the Garda investigation cast fresh doubt on other manhunts during the Troubles.

"The fact that a direction was given not to proceed raises huge concerns for us and the families of nearly 50 victims of cross-border attacks in the 1970s.

"If an order was given in 1979 not to proceed, an order could have been given in 1974 or 1975 in relation to the Dublin/Monaghan bombings. This would be our suspicion."

The Irish Justice Committee in parliament will debate the contents of the Barron Report in January.

See also, the following press coverage of yesterday's publication of the private Barron Report: