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Gerry Conlon has died

Tipsy McSwagger

http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0621/625499-gerry-conlon/

Gerry Conlon, the Belfast man who was wrongly jailed for an IRA bombing, has died.

Mr Conlan, who was 60, had been ill for some time.

He died this morning at his home off the Falls Road in west Belfast.

The Guildford Four - Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill, Carole Richardson and Paddy Armstrong - were jailed for life in 1975 for an IRA bombing campaign that killed five people and injured 65.

Gerry's father, Giuseppe, was jailed later that year. He had one lung, and emphysema and had just undergone chemotherapy. He died in prison five years later.

The Guildford Four were freed in 1989.

Finally, 16 years after their release, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair apologised for the miscarriage of justice.

RIP

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Galwayguy35

RIP

He had a tough life, the best years of his life wasted in a British jail and then passing away at the very young age of 60.

I know it's AH but some of the comments about an innocent man who just died are sickening.

Sunnyisland

scuba8 wrote: »

Did they actually produce evidence that they had committed the bombing or did they just say that they did it. Did they make written statements confessing their guilt. That was what was required. They could have done that much.
By the way who were the bombers?

Mick Murray has been named as one of the IRA bombers [25] and was sentenced to 12 years at the same trial that convicted the Birmingham Six.[1] Patrick Hill, one of the Six, said in April 2012 that the Six had learned the names of the real bombers and claimed it was common knowledge among the upper echelons of both the IRA and the British government.[26] He says he was told in around 1980 that IRA members had admitted that five people carried out the bombings, and that two of the five have since died, and two have been promised immunity.[27]

There is amble evidence on the internet if you want to find out more about what happened including the ground breaking documentary of who bombed Birmingham ,

Anyway this thread is not about who done what it's about a man who died and was wrongly convicted by so called brittish justice.

RIP

scuba8

realies wrote: »

Mick Murray has been named as one of the IRA bombers [25] and was sentenced to 12 years at the same trial that convicted the Birmingham Six.[1] Patrick Hill, one of the Six, said in April 2012 that the Six had learned the names of the real bombers and claimed it was common knowledge among the upper echelons of both the IRA and the British government.[26] He says he was told in around 1980 that IRA members had admitted that five people carried out the bombings, and that two of the five have since died, and two have been promised immunity.[27]

There is amble evidence on the internet if you want to find out more about what happened including the ground breaking documentary of who bombed Birmingham ,

Anyway this thread is not about who done what it's about a man who died and was wrongly convicted by so called brittish justice.

RIP

Too little too late. At the time of the sentencing it would have been simple for the real bombers to go to a solicitor, make a writen statement,put stuff in the statement that only whoever planted the bomb could know. Go with the statement and a solicitor into a police station in Belfast and confess. Gerry Conlon would have to be released. Did they do that did they heck.

Choochtown

scuba8 wrote: »

Too little too late. At the time of the sentencing it would have been simple for the real bombers to go to a solicitor, make a writen statement,put stuff in the statement that only whoever planted the bomb could know. Go with the statement and a solicitor into a police station in Belfast and confess. Gerry Conlon would have to be released. Did they do that did they heck.

One of the most sickening things about what happened to Gerry Conlon is that the British authorities knew that he was innocent but it was much easier to let him rot in prison and hope his supporters would eventually shut up. Unfortunately I don't think statements from the Balcombe Street bombers would have made any difference whatsoever. There were reputations to protect.

pO1Neil

Tramps Like Us wrote: »

Gerry Conlon spent a lot of time in recent years working on the case of the Craigavon Two, two men jailed for a murder they did not commit and were stitched up for

You can read more about the case and campaign here:

http://justiceforthecraigavontwo.com/

The best tribute you can make to Gerry is to continue his work against injustices like what he and now the craigavon two are suffering. Sadly the cases of the Guildford Four etc were not unique and similar things happen today

Very true. Gareth Pierce also worked on the Judith Ward case, another Irish person convicted of a IRA bombing around the same as the Guildford four & Birmingham six for just being Irish.

The reason they don't wont the Dublin bombings to become public knowledge is because their afraid of the public reaction - this is now bullsh!t.
Sure we burnt down the British embassy after Bloody Sunday but Irish people have grown an awful lot since then 42 years ago example - There was no ant-British backlash when the Guildford four, Maguire seven & Birmingham six were found innocent & sent free.

The best tribute we can pay Gerry & Irish citizens is found out the truth of the Dublin & Monaghan war criminals. I can guarantee there would be no anti-British backlash.

pO1Neil

scuba8 wrote: »

Too little too late. At the time of the sentencing it would have been simple for the real bombers to go to a solicitor, make a writen statement,put stuff in the statement that only whoever planted the bomb could know. Go with the statement and a solicitor into a police station in Belfast and confess. Gerry Conlon would have to be released. Did they do that did they heck.

I'm afraid that would have mad no difference. The authorities knew they were innocent from the start but they wanted Irish blood even if it was innocent Irish blood.

pO1Neil

Gerry on the Craigavon two.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gaXVP4QboQ

Dian Cecht

RIP

Gone but never forgotten !

Busted Flat.

realies wrote: »

In February 1977, during the trial of the Balcombe Street ASU, the four IRA men instructed their lawyers to "draw attention to the fact that four totally innocent people were serving massive sentences", referring to the Guildford Four.[5] Despite claims to the police that they were responsible[5] they were never charged with these offences, and the Guildford Four remained in prison for another twelve years.

I am old enough to remember when there was active protests and campaigns to highlight the innocence of the Birmingham six,Guildford four and the maguire family and the complete silence and indifference of the majority of the Irish goverment and media was shamefull.

Well done.

Mr.Micro

realies wrote: »

Mick Murray has been named as one of the IRA bombers [25] and was sentenced to 12 years at the same trial that convicted the Birmingham Six.[1] Patrick Hill, one of the Six, said in April 2012 that the Six had learned the names of the real bombers and claimed it was common knowledge among the upper echelons of both the IRA and the British government.[26] He says he was told in around 1980 that IRA members had admitted that five people carried out the bombings, and that two of the five have since died, and two have been promised immunity.[27]

There is amble evidence on the internet if you want to find out more about what happened including the ground breaking documentary of who bombed Birmingham ,

Anyway this thread is not about who done what it's about a man who died and was wrongly convicted by so called brittish justice.

RIP

The British don't do justice. It all depends on who you are. They just wanted any old paddy to pin the blame on at the time. Havers who prosecuted was part of the rot and knew like any barrister that there was not enough evidence against the men, and what they had was flawed in the extreme. There have been numerous miscarriages of justice in the British system and not just against Irish people. Hillsborough, the Birmingham 6, and many others. The British are masters at cover up and will always do it, it part of the fabric of their justice system. Good in parts but rotten in parts.

Busted Flat.

scuba8 wrote: »

Too little too late. At the time of the sentencing it would have been simple for the real bombers to go to a solicitor, make a writen statement,put stuff in the statement that only whoever planted the bomb could know. Go with the statement and a solicitor into a police station in Belfast and confess. Gerry Conlon would have to be released. Did they do that did they heck.

There was a war going at the time, declared by William Whitlaw minster for NI.

jca

scuba8 wrote: »

Too little too late. At the time of the sentencing it would have been simple for the real bombers to go to a solicitor, make a writen statement,put stuff in the statement that only whoever planted the bomb could know. Go with the statement and a solicitor into a police station in Belfast and confess. Gerry Conlon would have to be released. Did they do that did they heck.

That's a bit like going back to the bookie saying I meant to put the money on the other horse that won.

Sunnyisland

Seamus Mallon has said something simlar to the poster above, who said the IRA should have admitted there members involvement in the atrocity and named them,this is what Paul hill said

Paul Hill, one of the Guildford Four, has said that although IRA members arrested at the Balcombe Street siege in London admitted their part on the Guilford attack, this was not acted on by the British authorities.

He also said that the British intelligence service knew that the Guildford Four were innocent.

Mr Hill told RTE News that seeing and hearing the eulogies to Gerry Conlon reminded him that many people in political life and the media had no time - for many years - for those wrongfully jailed in Britain during the Troubles.

Mr Hill also said "the intelligence service were well aware that the people in the Birmingham case and the people in the Guildford case were totally and absolutely innocent."

"We’ll never get to the bottom of why they actually put people away. Scapegoats had to be found and they were found."

Mr Hill added that what happened to himself and Mr Conlon was "a greater miscarriage of justice than those who died."

http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0622/625641-gerry-conlon/

Suppose just like the Dublin Monaghan bombings we will never no the full truth.

LorMal

realies wrote: »

In February 1977, during the trial of the Balcombe Street ASU, the four IRA men instructed their lawyers to "draw attention to the fact that four totally innocent people were serving massive sentences", referring to the Guildford Four.[5] Despite claims to the police that they were responsible[5] they were never charged with these offences, and the Guildford Four remained in prison for another twelve years.

I am old enough to remember when there was active protests and campaigns to highlight the innocence of the Birmingham six,Guildford four and the maguire family, and the complete silence and indifference of the majority of the Irish goverment and media was shamefull.

This is the same Balcombe Street gang who were cheered and lifted aloft, feted as heroes, at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis on their release. Pathetic.

Busted Flat.

LorMal wrote: »

This is the same Balcombe Street gang who were cheered and lifted aloft, feted as heroes, at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis on their release. Pathetic.

The war was over then.

[Deleted User]

Very tragic news. When i learned of it last night my first thought was that Gerry and the others who suffered a miscarriage of justice would be the most deserving of a long fruitful life to make up for the injustice they suffered and the fifteen years of life that was stolen from them.

Its very sad to think that 15 of his 60 years were served in a prison for a crime he did not commit

RIP Gerry.

LorMal

Busted Flat. wrote: »

The war was over then.

Yeah, that excuses everything...

[Deleted User]

Riddle101 wrote: »

RIP Gerry Conlon, thankfully he didn't die in a prison cell.

Unfortunately his father Giuseppe did. The last years of his life spent in a prison cell. A sheer fúcking disgrace.

tomwaterford

LorMal wrote: »

Yeah, that excuses everything...

TBF....they were hardly going to get booed at a sinn fein ard fheis like

RIP to the man conlon....no one deserved that...it could have as easily been someone related to you....if they were irish living in London at the time....that's the scary thing...I see nothing to suggest it couldn't happen again

look at them dissident lads from Craigavon....while having misgivings about overly supporting dissidents (lack of main political message mainly)
I would struggle to stand over there convictions....indeed as far as I can tell a lot of dissident crimes get quashed on appeal...no justice is better tyhan the wrong person getting convicted and spending all them years in jail

Busted Flat.

LorMal wrote: »

Yeah, that excuses everything...

The Luftwaffe pilots that bombed London in ww2 were taken on by NATO to fly over and protect it's member states that they tried to destroy ten years earlier.
War is war, it is not one sided depending on which tv channel you are watching.
eg. Ukraine,Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria. Look at the change in attitude in relations now with the US and Iran. As I said war is war, depending on which channel you watch

scuba8

Busted Flat. wrote: »

There was a war going at the time, declared by William Whitlaw minster for NI.

That has no relevance at all. The fact is the Ira had the means at their disposal to have Gerry Conlon released. They chose to do nothing and left him to rot in jail for 15 years.
The British police were a disgrace and should themselves be in jail. But the Ira share a large portion of blame.

scuba8

Choochtown wrote: »

One of the most sickening things about what happened to Gerry Conlon is that the British authorities knew that he was innocent but it was much easier to let him rot in prison and hope his supporters would eventually shut up. Unfortunately I don't think statements from the Balcombe Street bombers would have made any difference whatsoever. There were reputations to protect.

We will never know what would have happened because the Ira never did give statements of confession.

tomwaterford

scuba8 wrote: »

That has no relevance at all. The fact is the Ira had the means at their disposal to have Gerry Conlon released. They chose to do nothing and left him to rot in jail for 15 years.
The British police were a disgrace and should themselves be in jail. But the Ira share a large portion of blame.

what more could they do??

from Wikipedia:

Along with other members of the Unit, he was eventually cornered by the Metropolitan Police in Balcombe Street and arrested after a week-long siege. He was eventually charged with sixty offences, and received twelve life sentences and a whole life tariff. O'Connell made a speech from the dock in which he said:

We have recognised this court to the extent that we have instructed our lawyers to draw the attention of the court to the fact that four totally innocent people – Carole Richardson, Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill and Paddy Armstrong – are serving massive sentences for three bombings, two in Guildford and one in Woolwich, which three of us and another man now imprisoned, have admitted that we did./COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0066cc]4[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0066cc

Busted Flat.

scuba8 wrote: »

That has no relevance at all. The fact is the Ira had the means at their disposal to have Gerry Conlon released. They chose to do nothing and left him to rot in jail for 15 years.
The British police were a disgrace and should themselves be in jail. But the Ira share a large portion of blame.

Read the posts, and look back at what was said. SF bashing has no place in this thread. There are several other threads will satisfy your requirements.

scuba8

jca wrote: »

That's a bit like going back to the bookie saying I meant to put the money on the other horse that won.

This makes no sense at all.

scuba8

Busted Flat. wrote: »

Read the posts, and look back at what was said. SF bashing has no place in this thread. There are several other threads will satisfy your requirements.

This was meant to be a tribute to Gerry Conlon. However the hypocracy of Gerry Adams on rte news and the shiners on this post is sickening. They behave as if they cared what had happened to Gerry Conlon. They could have helped have him released but chose to do nothing and left him rot in jail for fifteen years.
As I said spare me the crocodile tears.

Dyr

tomwaterford wrote: »

what more could they do??

from Wikipedia:

Along with other members of the Unit, he was eventually cornered by the Metropolitan Police in Balcombe Street and arrested after a week-long siege. He was eventually charged with sixty offences, and received twelve life sentences and a whole life tariff. O'Connell made a speech from the dock in which he said:
We have recognised this court to the extent that we have instructed our lawyers to draw the attention of the court to the fact that four totally innocent people – Carole Richardson, Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill and Paddy Armstrong – are serving massive sentences for three bombings, two in Guildford and one in Woolwich, which three of us and another man now imprisoned, have admitted that we did./COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0066cc]4[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0066cc

tbh you'd have spanners complaining that gerry kelly did'nt try bust the guildford 4 out of jail.

Its almost pavlovian in some types at this stage, anything related to the troubles: blame the shinners

scuba8

tomwaterford wrote: »

what more could they do??

from Wikipedia:

Along with other members of the Unit, he was eventually cornered by the Metropolitan Police in Balcombe Street and arrested after a week-long siege. He was eventually charged with sixty offences, and received twelve life sentences and a whole life tariff. O'Connell made a speech from the dock in which he said:
We have recognised this court to the extent that we have instructed our lawyers to draw the attention of the court to the fact that four totally innocent people – Carole Richardson, Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill and Paddy Armstrong – are serving massive sentences for three bombings, two in Guildford and one in Woolwich, which three of us and another man now imprisoned, have admitted that we did./COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0066cc]4[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0066cc

Statements from the dock years later does not cut it. At the time Gerry Conlon was convicted they could have made written statements through a solicitor in which they put in details of the bombing that only those involved could know. Then go with their solicitor and their written statements to say a police station in Belfast. Notify the press of what they were doing and confess. The Brits would have had no option but to quash the convictions. They chose to let innocent men take the blame for the bombing.

Busted Flat.

scuba8 wrote: »

Statements from the dock years later does not cut it. At the time Gerry Conlon was convicted they could have made written statements through a solicitor in which they put in details of the bombing that only those involved could know. Then go with their solicitor and their written statements to say a police station in Belfast. Notify the press of what they were doing and confess. The Brits would have had no option but to quash the convictions. They chose to let innocent men take the blame for the bombing.

I feel embarrassed for you now. There will be no further comment from me to your posts.

scuba8

Bambi wrote: »

tbh you'd have spanners complaining that gerry kelly did'nt try bust the guildford 4 out of jail.

Its almost pavlovian in some types at this stage, anything related to the troubles: blame the shinners

So you are saying the Ira did not let them rot in jail for 15 years.
This was not meant to be a bash the Ira thread. How ever when the shiners do not accept their part in the suffering of Gerry Conlon and pretend it had nothing to do with them then the hypocracy needs to be pointed out.