O'Farrell's family renew calls for Ombudsman reports

AHEAD of the 15th anniversary of Shane O’Farrell’s death in Monaghan, his mother has renewed her criticism of State agencies and, in particular, the Garda Ombudsman.

Lucia O’Farrell was reacting to comments made by Ireland’s first Police Ombudsman, Emily Logan, who was interviewed on RTÉ Radio 1 on Sunday ahead of Fiosrú’s first annual report, which is due out today (Wednesday).

Ms Logan was asked about several high-profile cases being investigated by GSOC and now, Fiosrú, including Shane’s. She refused to be drawn on Shane’s case citing ongoing court proceedings.

The presenter put it to the Ombudsman that Shane O’Farrell’s family “would like access to a GSOC report completed in 2018” and asked: “In your view is that possible?”

Ireland’s Ombudsman said she was “very conscious” that Shane’s anniversary was coming up in August.

“We’ve been engaging with the family for the past 15 years,” Ms Logan said. “People need to appreciate there are proceedings initiated by the O’Farrell family before the High Court so it would be wholly inappropriate of me to engage in a conversation about that.”

Lucia O’Farrell says there are still many unanswered questions surrounding the death of her 23-year-old son, Shane, who was knocked off his bike in a hit-and-run on the evening of August 2, 2011, near Carrickmacross.

In the months leading up to his death, the man who killed Shane, Zigimantas Gridziuska, had been convicted of 30 offences and was on bail for six of them. “Our family are victims of the most serious crime, the horrific death of our child, by a criminal who should have been in custody,” Lucia O’Farrell told the Celt.

“You would think that the agencies of the State would assist you to get answers.”

A year ago, to the day, Minister of Justice Jim O’Callaghan apologised on behalf of the State to the O’Farrell family.

Speaking in Dáil Éireann on May 27, 2025, Tánaiste Simon Harris said: “We acknowledge failures in the Courts Service and the criminal justice system that exposed Shane to danger on the fateful day of his tragic death.”

“As we said outside the Dáil a year ago, there are unanswered questions, which should be answered,” Lucia continued, “We believe these can be answered in the two Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission/GSOC reports into our complaints, both of these reports have been refused to our family.”

The O’Farrells first complained to GSOC in the months after Shane’s death. In 2014, the then Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, directed GSOC to carry out an investigation ‘in the public interest’, which, was completed in 2018.

The O’Farrell family were given a summary version of the report, which, Lucia says is “totally inadequate” because “some of our complaints are not addressed at all in the summary report”.

A year later, in 2019, another report was given to the Garda Commissioner but the O’Farrell family have not been given a copy of it.

“In Northern Ireland, when an investigation is completed, a copy of the report is given to the family so that it might help to answer the family’s questions,” Lucia said.

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) became Fiosrú, the Office of the Police Ombudsman, on April 2, 2025. The new title translates as “inquiry,” “investigation,” or “query”.

The old three-person commissioner model was replaced by a single Police Ombudsman, Emily Logan.

Mrs O’Farrell said that, what was ongoing for the family as they approached the 15th anniversary of the death of their beloved child, felt like “abuse”.

She added that the processes by which families need to go through to get access to the relevant reports “causes re-victimisation of families”.