Cavan Monaghan TD, Matt Carthy, has welcomed the formal apology received by the family of Shane O'Farrell in the Dáil yesterday afternoon, saying it was a vindication of their campaign over the 14 years since his death.
Deputy Carthy commended Shane's family for their 'tenacity, determination and intelligence' and described Shane's mother, Lucia, as a 'force of nature'.
He said that government should publish documents which have been refused to the family so as to send a signal that a similar situation cannot ever happen again.
In a statement issued to Northern Sound following the apology, Deputy Carthy said; "To use that Irish phrase, I knew Shane O’Farrell to see, but I had never spoken with him. It’s one of my regrets that I didn’t know the man in life that I now feel I know well; the good-looking, talented, popular young man from my hometown of Carrickmacross.
"Conversely, I also regret that I have gotten to know his family so well. I regret that because it’s only because of what had happened to Shane on a summers evening in August 2011. Prior to that Jim & Lucia O’Farrell were the quiet, dignified parents of four daughters and their beloved son. They caused no offence to anyone, they were model citizens, they were the definition of a perfect Irish family. Their lives changed forever when Zigmantas Gridziuska killed their son.
"The shadow of an unbearable grief was to become the constant backdrop to their lives. But they were also to become formidable campaigners for truth and justice. Today is their vindication. Today is an acknowledgement by the government that this family was right in their campaign. No longer can their assertions of state failures be described or dismissed as allegations. It is an indisputable fact that Shane O’Farrell was failed by this state, resulting in his death, and that his family were failed by the state every day since."
