‘It was very important to our family' – mother of Shane O'Farrell reacts to Justice Minister's apology

Irish Independent

29-05-2025

Shane O'Farrell (23) was knocked off his bicycle and killed in a hit-and-run incident near his home in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, in August 2011.
"He was just finished college in Trinity. He was training all year. He was a very good swimmer and good athlete,' his mother Lucia O'Farrell told Oliver Callan.
She told of how her son loved rugby and was also training for an upcoming triathlon, and had headed off on his final cycle before the event.
"He went out and his sister said 'will you have a cup of tea?' and he said 'I will when I come back.' And he never came home,' Ms O'Farrell said.
She said he lost out on his whole life ahead and 'what should have been', including the study that he had done, his law degree and a masters degree.
"He loved the piano and guitar. He loved people, he loved life, he loved making tea and toast. He loved the chats with people.
"When he was over in London visiting his girlfriend, he would go down to the markets in Camden and get ostrich or whatever was being sold.
"He would have a chat with the people running the market, maybe the African man or the children. He was very good with people,' she said.
"He drew people to him. He was fascinated with language and English and life. He loved life. He was beaming with life.'
Ms O'Farrell also told of how proud her son was of Carrickmacross and his native Monaghan, where he loved being around nature, be it birds or flowers.
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She told how she 'hasn't missed a single day' in visiting her son's grave since his death, and often spends the nigh awake or being restless.
"Because that is where they failed him. That is where he is. He should be here, living his life,' she said.
"Our daughters have got married since, and you look on at the dancefloor thinking, he should be out there dancing or at the bar having a pint,' Ms O'Farrell added.
She said there are chapters of her son's life 'unwritten now forever, and that's not fair'.
Ms O'Farrell added that she has chanelled her grief into the anger that she keeps over her son's death, as he 'has no voice'.
Shane O'Farrell was killed in the hit-and-run by Zigimantas Gridziuska, who was out on bail at the time, including for driving offences.
Gridziuska was a repeat criminal who had committed a series of offences while on bail and, a year before the hit-and-run, was given a prison sentence which he did not serve.
Ms O'Farrell and her family had for years campaigned for a full public inquiry, saying they don't know why the driver who killed her son was at liberty at the time of the killing.
Ms O'Farrell described Minister O'Callaghan's public apology to the O'Farrell family in the Dáil on Tuesday, as a 'significant step'.
She said it was an official acknowledgement of the institutional failures which exposed her son to danger.
'He apologised to Shane and I think that was very important to our family,' she said.
"That it wasn't just an apology to us, it was an apology to Shane and the O'Farrell family, as the criminal justice system did not protect Shane as it should have.'
She said the family have been 'stonewalled by various State agencies throughout this process', receiving letters back saying they acknowledged receipt of their letters.
"But your question isn't answered. We would hope with our campaign and what we have achieved now, it hasn't brought Shane back, it will never bring Shane back.
"But it is a recognition by the State that Shane was failed. But we would hope that other families wouldn't be treated like we have been treated,' she said.
Ms O'Farrell added that she hopes there will be a 'sea change' in the Department of Justice to listen to victims and to have them at the centre of everything.
"When you lose a child, you lose everything. Time is over. Time left over is unwanted. It shouldn't be a huge hurdle for families to get answers,' she said.
In addition to apologising, Mr O'Callaghan announced a review of bail laws, an upcoming change to road traffic law and a new scholarship in Shane O'Farrell's name.
Ms O'Farrell said that her son's legacy 'will live on now' through the memorial scholarship in University College Dublin, where he studied law.