RIP Gerry Conlan

[TiredCassandrasbed]

He passed away. Poor Man never recovered from false imprisonment for a crime he didn't not commit.

[TiredCassandrasbed]

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/21/gerry-conlon-guildford-four-dies-belfast-ira

[7Days]

RIP, some life

[NadiaWadia]

Very sad. I assume the strain of his false conviction and years of imprisonment must have affected his health. A disgraceful episode in British history. RIP.

[DioneTheDiabolist]

[mithuseretrod]

his father was also arrested? his father was one of the maguire seven? whaaat? I didn't know that. who were the maguire seven?

[Provencalroseparadox]

There is a wonderful Daniel Day Lewis film all about them. Worth a watch - shocking story.

RIP

[NadiaWadia]

Have you not seen 'In the Name of the Father', mithuseretrod?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maguire_7

Basically named after a group of people who were wrongly convicted in the 1970s of the terrible Guildford pub bombings (done by the IRA, individuals actually responsible never found, afaik). Called that, I think, after Annie Maguire, one of those wrongly convicted (and she was Gerry Conlon's aunt, I think).

[gertiegusset]

Not wrongly convicted, set up and framed.
But the police, as always, were cleared.

[gertiegusset]

Gerry Conlon's Father had travelled to England from NI to help him, he was arrested too and died in jail.
He was an ill man and got virtually no medical treatment in prison.
The guards would have been awful, everyone was so angry about the Birmingham and the Guildford bombings, they didn't stand a chance.
Even a single by The Pogues was banned from being played on the radio because it was supportive of them.

[alwaysonmymind]

How sad.
The film "In the Name of The Father" gives me chills. I haven't watched it in a long time. Stunning soundtrack and a great performance by Emma Thompson.
Daniel Day Lewis stayed in character, in a cell, having people scream at him and wake him at all hours to achieve the haunted look

[gertiegusset]

I might be wrong but I seem to remember that the Judge who sentenced them said that if he had had the power to give the death penalty then he would have done so.

So all those innocent men and women would have hung.

Have been trying to find an interview I remember Anne Diamond doing with one of them where she kept saying 'What about all the innocent victims of the bombings' and why should they (the bombers) be given compensation and he replied
'They shouldn't'
'But WE didn't do it'.

Think that might have been Paul Hill who later married one of the Kennedy family.

[alwaysonmymind]

It was proven that the Maguire 7 didn't have nitro-glycerine on their hands. The same result was got from the coating on a deck of cards they had been playing in the house.
Auntie Annie's bomb factory never existed. Her son (can't remember his name) had just become a teenager.
What a miscarriage of justice. Just saying that doesn't do it justice

[alwaysonmymind]

Gertie
You are right. He wanted the Maguire 7 to be charged with treason which was a capital offence then

[alwaysonmymind]

Sorry it was the Guildford 4

[gertiegusset]

I get mixed up too with the Birmingham six, Guildford four and the Maguire family.
Still can't find that Anne Diamond interview.

[expatinscotland]

How sad.

[Provencalroseparadox]

Is Pete Posselthwaite the father in the film? Giovanni I think he was called?

[gertiegusset]

Guiseppe Conlon, yes it was Pete Posselthwaite.

[gertiegusset]

It was a bad time, all the so called 'troubles' in NI, the Irish were hated for a long time.
My Dad was in the Army and was there for a while, he wasn't in the line of duty and we lived there in north Belfast.
I remember seeing the soldiers in the back off the armoured vehicles with guns and having your bags searched when you went to the shops.

[Provencalroseparadox]

Guiseppe yes. PP is wonderful in the film too.

[alwaysonmymind]

Interesting Gertie. I grew up in NI, born in 1973. I have the same memories - opening your bag before going into a shop and the soldiers driving past. Thinking back, most of them were just kids themselves

[edamsavestheday]

terribly sad. The horrific injustice done to the Four, and the other victims of wrongful convictions.

The thing is the coppers KNEW they were innocent. But persisted in fitting them up. Such evil - and those responsible have never had to account for their actions, IIRC.

[soaccidentprone]

I just about remember the bombings in the 70's, but watching 'In The Name Of The Father' was very enlightening. An excellent film, and portrayal of the events.

So sad that Gerry only lived to be 60, though given the PTSD he suffered due to his false imprisonment, and the cancer, then at least he isn't suffering any more. To falsify evidence so that an innocent 20 year old spent 15 years in prison is a disgrace, as is the fact it took such a long time for him to (and the others) to receive an official apology.

RIP Gerry.

[NuggetofPurestGreen]

I am not normally very affected by deaths of famous people I don't know but got a bit teary about this this morning. Too young.

[tribpot]

I watched In the Name of the Father today - as a film I think rather marred by a crazy courtroom scene at the end that I think must be extremely inaccurate. But a terrible, terrible story. The actual bombers confessed to the crime but the police didn't want to know.

Amazingly no police were ever convicted of wrongdoing, despite the fact a fourteen year old was made to serve 4 years in prison - as well as the monstrous injustices to the others.

Article from the Guardian in 1999 here and about the trial of the police officers here - a staggering quote from Kenneth Clarke (then Home Secretary) saying the not guilty verdict "enables everyone now to get that particular incident back in proportion". I'm not clear what proportion he thinks/thought was reasonable for the wholesale destruction of eleven people's lives, plus their families, and the failure to bring to justice the actual killers of the people killed by the Woolwich and Guildford bombings.

RIP Gerry and Giuseppe Conlon.