27-05-2025
Family of hit-and-run victim Shane O'Farrell to receive State apology over circumstances of his death
Members of Shane O'Farrell's family will be in the Dáil on Tuesday to hear the State apology over the circumstances of their son's death in a hit and run.
The 23-year-old cyclist died in August 2011. He was cycling home when he was struck by a car driven by Zigimantas Gridziuska, near Carrickmacross in Co Monaghan.
The following day, the Lithuanian surrendered himself to gardaí. However, the O'Farrell family feel he should never have been at liberty to kill Shane.
On a number of occasions in the two years before the incident, he had been granted conditional bail but it had not been revoked despite broken conditions.
At the time of Mr O'Farrell's death, he was on bail in connection with a number of separate incidents.
More than two hours has been set aside in the Dáil schedule for the apology and subsequent statements from 3.50pm on Tuesday afternoon.
Shane's mother Lucia, who has campaigned for several years for justice for her son, said she wondered 'what Shane would have thought of it all' and said the case had been a 'shameful way to treat victims'.
Lucia O'Farrell has campaigned for several years for justice for her son. Picture: Courtpix
In 2018, justice minister Jim O'Callaghan, who was then a back bench TD, tabled a motion calling for a public inquiry into the death. In March, he told the Dáil he did so because there were issues of concern including 'that the driver was on bail at the time, gardaí stopped his car one hour before the collision and he had previous convictions that should have triggered his reappearance before the courts'.
Two separate Gsoc examinations of different elements of the case were carried out, but a public inquiry has never taken place. A scoping exercise of the case carried out by retired judge Gerard Haughton was published in 2023, and a key finding was that an inquiry was unwarranted.
Last July, Sinn Féin, Labour, and Independent TDs brought a private members motion calling for the immediate establishment of an 'independent public inquiry into the death of Shane O'Farrell and the actions of State agencies before and after his death in respect of this case'.
The motion said there were multiple failures, adding it was now necessary to have the actions of An Garda Síochána, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Gsoc, and the Courts Service examined.
The then minister for justice Helen McEntee pledged to refer the recommendations of the scoping inquiry to the justice committee but did not do so in her tenure, she said, because of the proximity to the general election. Mr O'Callaghan has said he will refer the recommendations to the new justice committee.
