Gerry Conlon

Gerry Conlon
Gerry Conlon outside the Court of Appeal at the time of his release
Born Gerard Conlon
(1954-03-01)1 March 1954
Belfast
Died 21 June 2014(2014-06-21) (aged 60)
Belfast
Cause of death Lung cancer
Criminal charge Guildford pub bombings on 5 October 1974[1]
Criminal penalty Convicted on 22 October 1975 and sentenced to life imprisonment[1]
Criminal status Conviction quashed by Court of Appeal on 19 October 1989[1]
Parent(s)

Giuseppe

Conlon,
Sarah Conlon

Gerard "Gerry" Conlon (1 March 1954 – 21 June 2014) was one of the Guildford Four who spent 15 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of being a Provisional IRA bomber.

Biography

Gerry Conlon was born in Belfast and grew up in the impoverished but close-knit community of the Lower Falls Road. He described his childhood as happy. His father was Giuseppe Conlon, a factory worker, and his mother was Sarah Conlon, a hospital cleaner.[2]

In 1974, at age 20, Conlon went to England to seek work and to escape the everyday violence he was encountering on the streets of Belfast. He was living with a group of squatters in London when he was arrested for the Guildford pub bombings, which occurred on 5 October the same year.[3]

Conlon, along with fellow Irishmen Paul Hill and Paddy Armstrong and Englishwoman Carole Richardson, became the so-called Guildford Four convicted on 22 October 1975 of planting two bombs a year earlier in the Surrey town of Guildford which killed five people and injured dozens more.[1] The four were sentenced to life in prison.[1] At their trial the judge told the defendants, "If hanging were still an option you would have been executed."[3]

Conlon continued to protest his innocence, insisting that police had tortured him into making a false confession. On 19 October 1989,[1] his position was vindicated when the Guildford Four were freed after the Court of Appeal in London ruled that police had fabricated the handwritten interrogation notes used in the conviction. Crucial evidence proving Conlon could not have carried out the bombings had been held back by the police from the original trial.[3]

A group of Conlon's relatives, collectively known as the Maguire Seven, was convicted of being part of the bombing campaign and also spent decades in prison. Among them was his father, Giuseppe, who had travelled to London from Belfast to help his son mount a legal defence, and who died in prison in 1980. In 1991 the Maguire Seven were also exonerated.[3] Scientists had falsely asserted that the hands of each defendant had tested positive for nitroglycerine.[2]

Michael Mansfield QC gives the first Gerry Conlon Memorial Lecture at St. Mary's College Belfast

After emerging from the Court of Appeal as a free man, Conlon said: "I have been in prison for something I did not do. I am totally innocent. The Maguire Seven are innocent. Let's hope the Birmingham Six are freed." Conlon was represented by human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce, who also secured the release of the Birmingham Six.[4]

Conlon described his experience of injustice in his book Proved Innocent (1991).[2] After that, he became a leading character in the film In the Name of the Father (1993), in which he was portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis.[5]

After his release from prison, Conlon had problems adjusting to civilian life, suffering two nervous breakdowns, attempting suicide, and becoming addicted to alcohol and other drugs. He eventually recovered and became a campaigner against various miscarriages of justice in the United Kingdom and around the world.[3]

Death

Conlon battled with lung cancer for a lengthy period before his death on 21 June 2014 in his native Belfast. His sister Ann McKernan died on 2 April 2018.[3][5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Guildford Four pub bombing files 'show fresh evidence'". BBC. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 "Gerry Conlon obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Gerry Conlon, wrongfully imprisoned for IRA attack, dies at 60". The Globe and Mail (from New York Times News Service). Archived from the original on 23 June 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
  4. ↑ "Gerry Conlon – who was wrongly convicted of Guildford pub bombings and jailed for 14 years – dies at home after long illness". The Daily Mail (UK). Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  5. 1 2 "Gerry Conlon dies aged 60 of cancer". Big News Network. Retrieved 24 June 2014.

Further reading

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