Ludlowfamily‘appalled’at appealcourtrulingoncosts
THE family of the late Seamus Ludlow, who was murdered by British agents near Dundalk on the 2nd of May 1976, say they are ‘appalled’ at an appeal court ruling last week that they must pay their own High Court legal fees.
Michael Donegan, a nephew of the late Seamus Ludlow, say the family were ‘appalled that the Irish State should seek to punish them for daring to seek long denied justice through the courts for their murdered relative.’
In an appeal court judgment last week on costs issues, the three-judge COA granted the State’s application to replace an order requiring it to pay half of the family’s High Court costs with an order that each side pay their own High Court costs.
‘Shamefully, we are expected pay for seeking the justice that this state has long denied us! The Gardai have never conducted a full and proper investigation into this foul murder and several leads and known loyalist and British army suspects have never been pursued. The State plainly seeks to punish our family for fighting for our loved one through the Irish courts to get the truth and justice that the State has consistently failed to give us.’
‘As a family seeking truth and justice for a murdered loved one, we have bent over backwards time and time again to accommodate the authorities and at every opportunity we got slapped in the face. We have been treated with appalling bad faith by politicians who accept, and can never deny, that we have been let down at every turn by
the State, yet still they remain determined to stand against us and now try to intimidate us into dropping our demands for truth and justice.’
The family say they abandoned their original demand for an independent public inquiry to accept the more limited private Barron Inquiry and Joint Oireachtas Sub Committee process, which in 2006 resulted in recommendations of two commissions of investigation that were never implemented.
‘Shamefully our willingness to compromise has been perceived as weakness and our family’s demands have been dismissed at every opportunity. Nobody accepts responsibility for all that was done in denying justice for Seamus Ludlow and his family, and it is evident that in the Irish state nobody will ever be held accountable.’
The family say they have ‘ heard nothing but meaningless apologies from Garda commissioners and cabinet ministers who never follow through and grant us the truth and justice we demand. In 2015 the Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald, while refusing to implement those recommendations, still apologised to the Ludlow family saying that the Garda handling of the murder investigation was ‘inexcusable’. This is just the latest admission or apology from a State that still continues to fight us through the courts to ensure that we never find justice and truth for our murdered relative.’
The Ludlow family appealed that ministerial decision, but a 2017 High Court judgment concluded the courts cannot force the government to set up any kind of inquiry.
However, Ms Justice Mary Faherty said it was ‘undeniably acknowledged’ the State had failed Seamus Ludlow and his family and, on public interest grounds, she directed it to pay half their legal costs.
‘Now it seems that the State just wasn’t prepared to accept that, all of which shows us that ministerial apologies mean nothing at all,’ said Mr. Donegan.
‘Earlier this year, we appealed that decision but again lost at the court of appeal. At that appeal hearing one judge: rebutting our lawyers’ arguments said that far from the recent Programme for Government providing a justification for our case at the court of appeal, it showed this was ‘an issue that should always have been pursued in the political arena, rather than the courts.’
‘Absolutely, justice for Seamus Ludlow should always have been pursued through the courts and the justice system, but shamefully that route has always been closed to us, and now we see Irish courts and the State demonstrably still have no interest in justice for Seamus Ludlow.’