FAMILY OF HIT-AND-RUN VICTIM SHANE O’FARRELL RECEIVE STATE APOLOGY FROM MINISTER FOR JUSTICE 14 YEARS AFTER LAW GRADUATE’S DEATH

By Veronica Corr

Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan addressed Dáil Éireann on Tuesday, 27th May to issue an apology to the family of Shane O’Farrell, a 23-year-old man who was killed in a hit-and-run outside Carrickmacross on August 2nd 2011, by a serial offender whom it is accepted should have been in jail at the time of the law graduate’s unlawful killing when he was cycling home. The Taoiseach and Tánaiste endorsed the State apology delivered by the Minister for Justice.

The O’Farrell family were present to witness the apology and after it had been delivered, other Oireachtas members were invited to make statements on the matter on the Dáil record. Cheann Comhairle John McGuinness. Here follows the text of the apology by the Minister for Justice in Dáil Éireann to Shane O’Farrell and the late young man’s family: “When Shane O’Farrell left his home in Carrickmacross on the evening of 2 August 2011 to go on a cycle in preparation for a charity triathlon, he had his whole life ahead of him. At 23 years of age, Shane had secured a Law degree from UCD, had just completed his Master’s in Law at Trinity College Dublin, and would no doubt have proceeded to commence a professional career that would have been as distinguished as his student career. “That life was never lived because Shane was killed that evening. His loss was incalculable. His family’s was interminable.

“I know how much pain the O’Farrell family have gone through since they were informed that day of Shane’s death. There is nothing that I nor the Irish Government can do to alleviate that pain. What I can do, however, is record how the justice system that operated at the time exposed Shane to a threat to which he should not have been exposed. “For many years, the O’Farrell family have sought a Public Inquiry. In fact, this House voted on 14 June 2018 and 10 July 2024 for the establishment of such an Inquiry. The Seanad voted for one on 13 February 2019. The purpose of an inquiry is not to administer justice but to reveal and report on facts that are of public importance. Many of the facts associated with Shane’s death have already been established, mainly through the indefatigable work of his loving mother Lucia. We could spend many years inquiring into these facts – facts that are already known – in the hope or expectation that a Chairperson of such an Inquiry would report them in a manner sympathetic and favourable to the facts as presented to me by the O’Farrell family. “I need neither more, nor further entrenchment, of those facts in order to face up to my responsibility as Minister for Justice and the State’s responsibility for failings in our system that exposed Shane to danger on that fateful …