{"id":44273,"date":"2025-09-26T08:41:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T08:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/44273\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T08:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T08:41:12","slug":"shane-ofarrells-mother-says-family-terribly-disappointed-by-heather-humphreys-stance-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/44273\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane O\u2019Farrell\u2019s mother says family \u2018terribly disappointed\u2019 by Heather Humphreys stance \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lucia O\u2019Farrell, the mother of hit-and-run victim Shane O\u2019Farrell<\/a>, has said she was \u201cterribly disappointed\u201d that Heather Humphreys<\/a> did not support the Monaghan<\/a> family\u2019s campaign for a public inquiry into failings in the criminal justice system surrounding her son\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Ms O\u2019Farrell said the Fine Gael<\/a> presidential candidate is \u201cnot capable of being the president for the people of Ireland, when she can\u2019t represent her own people in Monaghan\u201d.<\/p>\n

Shane O\u2019Farrell died in a hit-and-run incident in Co Monaghan in 2011. The 23-year-old was knocked off his bike by a man with multiple convictions.<\/p>\n

For 14 years his mother has been campaigning for answers about how and why Zigimantas Gridziuska, who was driving the car that hit Mr O\u2019Farrell, was out on bail at the time. Gridziuska had 42 previous convictions, including for road-traffic offences, theft and heroin possession.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year the O\u2019Farrell family were offered a State apology<\/a> for failings in the criminal justice system. Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> also announced a review of bail laws, \u201cto help prevent other families having to suffer in the way the O\u2019Farrell family have suffered\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0D\u00e1il hears claim that driver who killed Shane O\u2019Farrell was a Garda \u2018informer\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ms O\u2019Farrell told The Irish Times the family had been supported by politicians from across the political spectrum, adding, \u201cwe were very lucky with those kind and good people who had a good heart\u201d. These included politicians from Sinn F\u00e9in, Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael, as well as Independents, she said. <\/p>\n

But Ms O\u2019Farrell said the family were not supported by Ms Humphreys, who was their local TD in Monaghan for the period between Mr O\u2019Farrell\u2019s death and last year\u2019s general election. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe never stood shoulder to shoulder with us outside the D\u00e1il, when almost everyone else did. When the doors were bulging in Buswells Hotel, when we had a press conference, she wasn\u2019t there,\u201d Ms O\u2019Farrell said. <\/p>\n

\"ShaneShane O\u2019Farrell (23) was killed in 2011, while cycling on the N2 near Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan \"\"He killed Shane O’Farrell. Why was he out on bail? <\/p>\n

\u201cI was terribly disappointed in that. I thought as a local representative from Cavan Monaghan, as our local representative, and as a mother, that it would be different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms O\u2019Farrell said she has never met Ms Humphreys, although she received some email correspondence from her. She also said she called Ms Humphreys in the year before the State apology and asked to meet the then minister to show her documents relating to Mr O\u2019Farrell\u2019s case. Ms Humphreys asked Ms O\u2019Farrell to send the documents to her, Ms O\u2019Farrell said. <\/p>\n

\"FineFine Gael presidential candidate Heather Humphreys. Photograph: Stephen Collins\/Collins Photos <\/p>\n

She said she expected Ms Humphreys to contact the family after the State apology was issued. <\/p>\n

There is no record of Ms Humphreys having raised the family\u2019s case in the D\u00e1il. She responded to questions from other politicians asked on behalf of the O\u2019Farrell family when she briefly served as minister for justice while Helen McEntee was on maternity leave. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd she read from a script,\u201d Ms O\u2019Farrell said. <\/p>\n

A spokesman for Ms Humphreys said: \u201cThe O\u2019Farrell family have endured terrible pain since the loss of Shane. Heather has spoken with Lucia in the past. She welcomes the State apology from Minister Jim O\u2019Callaghan to the family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lucia O\u2019Farrell, the mother of hit-and-run victim Shane O\u2019Farrell, has said she was \u201cterribly disappointed\u201d that Heather Humphreys…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2044,61,60,43,978],"class_list":["post-44273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-heather-humphreys","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-presidential-election"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}