Visitors are invited to leave messages of support on our New Guest Book

Victims' Families' Statement, 13 June 2000.      The following joint press statement was released on 13th June 2000 by Margaret Urwin, Secretary of Justice for the Forgotten, the group representing the majority of the relatives of victims and survivors of the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan Bombings.  The statement followed recent public statements from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, and others in the Dublin political establishment, calling for public inquiries in the North for several glaring cases of injustice and collusion between British state forces and Loyalist murder gangs, while refusing to support these families' calls for equal openness south of the border. The statement was issued on behalf of the families of the victims of several murderous Loyalist attacks south of the Irish border: the Dublin bombings of 1972 and 1973; the Dublin and Monaghan bombing of 1974; the Dundalk bombing of 1975; and the murder of Seamus Ludlow in 1976.  The families of the victims of pro-British murder gangs south of the Irish border support all such calls by bereaved relatives for public inquiries, north and south, where there is grave public disquiet about collusion and official cover-ups following such Loyalist killings. This statement appeared in the local Dundalk Democrat newspaper on 17 June and the next day it featured as Letter of the Week in the Dublin weekly Ireland on Sunday. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- As families of victims of unsolved murders in this State related to the Northern conflict, we welcome the Taoiseach's call for an independent public inquiry into the murder of Portadown man, Robert Hamill.  We also welcome his support for the Bloody Sunday Inquiry and his call for inquiries into the murders of Human Rights lawyers, Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson. Additionally, we welcome the remarks of former Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, supporting Mr. Ahern's call for the public inquiry into Robert Hamill's death.  During an interview on 'Morning Ireland' on RTE on Thursday, 8th June, he expressed concern that no inquest was to be held. We welcome his support for a process of public accountability that is open and transparent. However, their calls for public inquiries into atrocities committed outside this jurisdiction ring rather hollow when compared with their continued reluctance to hold public inquiries in this jurisdiction into the murders of our loved ones who died in equally tragic and controversial circumstances. Mr. Reynolds' expression of concern into the failure to hold an inquest in the Robert Hamill case might carry more conviction if he was to express equal concern at the failure of this State to conclude inquests in the cases of the Dublin bombings of 1972, 1973 and 1974. We ask that journalists, in future, would challenge the Taoiseach and all politicians who express support for inquiries outside this jurisdiction to account for the glaring anomaly of their failure to address the demands of victims in this State. Tim Grace & Michelle O'Brien, Justice for the Forgotten (Dublin & Monaghan Bombings 1974) Paddy Duffy, Matthew Bradshaw & Margaret Hynes (Families of victims of 1972/73 Dublin Bombings) Maura McKeever & Margaret English (Families of victims of 1975 Dundalk Bombing) Kevin Ludlow & Jimmy Sharkey (Family of Seamus Ludlow) PO Box 6790, Dublin 15, Ireland.   Back to Top.  Print this page. SUPPORT THE SEAMUS LUDLOW APPEAL FUND Bank of Ireland 78 Clanbrassil Street Dundalk County Louth Ireland Account No. 70037984     Thank You.  I Home I I Previous I I Top I I First Ludlow Site I I Questions I I Chronology I I Brief Review I I Profile I I BIRW Report I I BIRW Update Message I I Photographs I I Ludlow family's Letter to the RUC Chief Constable I I Hamilton Inquiry I I Latest Reports I I Contributors I I Linda Porra's Editorial I I  Jim J. Kane's Letter to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission  I I Jim J. Kane's Letter to the RUC I I Press Release I I Links I I New Guest Book I I E-Mail Form I I Mailing List I I Tell a Friend I Please use one of these e-mail links to make contact with the Ludlow family:  Contact us!  Contact us! Contact us!   or FAX: 775 - 418 - 6911   This page was last updated: 18/11/03  Copyright © 2003 the Ludlow family. All rights reserved.