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Gerry Conlon (Guildford 4 & miscarriage of justice campaigner) at JWI Conference — Transcript

by JusticeWatchIreland · 2,203 words · 397 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:06in the autumn of 74
0:09they already noticed a murderous attack
0:11in england
0:12and a result of that they introduced a
0:15entire zombie
0:16well i became the second person to be
0:18arrested over
0:19and how i fitted the profile of an ira
0:22one would
0:23still be only because i had what you
0:25turned in belfast a tendency to release
0:28shots of their goods i was a shoplifter
0:31and there was no way anyone could
0:33connect me with republicanism
0:35paramilitarism or militancy of any way
0:39but in the course of a week in the
0:42course of a week
0:43you had 17 innocent people arrested
0:47you actually had more you actually had
0:4940 or 50.
0:50and we had a we were living in squats in
0:54london at the time
0:55and there was actually a couple of
0:56people from cumber who were protestants
0:59who were initially charged with the
1:02guilford moore league opponents
1:05who were our co-defendants for three
1:06months
1:08and then they whittled it down because
1:10he they knew if they had so many people
1:12in the dark that it would fail
1:16but this was a concerted plan by the
1:18british government in relation
1:20to what the ira was doing in england and
1:23they knew they had innocent people
1:25on the 24th of november
1:28on the day they sentenced the birmingham
1:30sex
1:31or the day they charged the birmingham 6
1:34with morris bop
1:34the assistant chief constable who's
1:37reading out the names
1:38and they were being scrolled down on the
1:40television
1:41unbeknown to the ira embarming home
1:44special brands had a mole
1:46who called his handlers in special
1:48branch and given the names of the two
1:50men who made the bombs
1:52and the three people who carried them
1:53planted the bombs
1:55but because they tortured them and
1:58charged them
2:00it was almost like a convertible system
2:02that had no reverse gear
2:04they had to go through with their
2:05charade and when muslim talks about
2:07torture
2:09my production to the british police
2:12was to be herded the harm cut put on a
2:15plane
2:16taken off a plane with a hood still on
2:19me they can tell the police this i
2:20didn't know why
2:23in front of police officers who formed
2:25the gauntlet and was spitting on me and
2:27kicking me
2:28i had something nothing about and all
2:31through that
2:31week we were held near
2:35they had led outstations into the cell
2:37on long leashes
2:39and i never realized the length of
2:41announcements tongue until it
2:42licked them and how rough it fell
2:46and dripping water out of the toilet and
2:49while this was going on
2:51when they were not actually like me but
2:53with
2:54renditionally the people who committed
2:57the guilford and woody's pop bombs
2:59did a moment on sunday the 1st of
3:02december the green man
3:04in london and the two forensic officers
3:07who went to that crime scene
3:10were two correct forensic officers who
3:12played a major part in conviction of my
3:14father
3:15and the mcguires higgs and lidsted
3:18i named every policeman who tortured me
3:21without fear i named the politicians who
3:25were involved
3:27and conspiring to put me in jail and put
3:30my father in jail and put my cousins in
3:31jail
3:32patrick mcguire 13 years of age his
3:35dream was to grow up and be in the
3:36parachute regiment
3:37to follow his father into the british
3:39army if you don't want indiana mcguire's
3:41house
3:42but i wonder at times what the police
3:45who went in the alley maguire's house
3:47must have thought when they were greeted
3:49by a large photograph of the queen
3:52mother
3:52a bust of winston churchill on a union
3:55jack on the wall
3:58did they not stop for one minute and
3:59think
4:01anyway we went on trial with a young
4:04english girl carl richardson 16 years of
4:07age
4:08they were doing it to their own they
4:11were doing it to their own in my head
4:14i could sort of come to terms with it a
4:16little bit because i've lived here
4:19but i couldn't believe what was
4:20happening to me over there
4:23we ended up getting sentenced on the
4:2422nd
4:26of october 1975. when we were being
4:30sentenced to judge john donaldson said
4:32i'm disappointed and i want to know why
4:36the proper sentence is no longer on the
4:38statue but
4:40hanging because i would execute the full
4:42reviews
4:43he would have hung us the falcon street
4:47people
4:48who committed the guilford and woolwich
4:49bombers were arrested on thursday
4:52the 16th of the summer 1975 and at the
4:55end of the stage they were taken to four
4:57individual police stations
4:59and they were left overnight and at the
5:01same time
5:03the next day four different sets
5:06of special branch and bomb squad
5:09officers went in the interview
5:10and when asked what was the first
5:13bombing
5:14they had done they started you putting
5:16some people in jail
5:18and they made long detailed statements
5:20about it
5:21how they've done it the type of
5:22explosives what they put in it
5:25everything and they give details of the
5:27people who were in the bubble
5:30they were charged nine months later
5:32after they contacted frank mcguire and
5:34the independent damn faith
5:36he went to see him when wards were
5:37president who came out and said did
5:39these people admittedly a crime
5:40that other people are in jail for the
5:43british police took them out
5:44and took them to the special courts and
5:46charged them with guilford and woodward
5:49and three weeks before their trial they
5:51took them to another special court and
5:53dropped the charges
5:55and put in complex conspiracy charges
5:58which they refined not guilty off and
6:01they used our trial as a platform
6:04to prove our innocence and on that basis
6:07we were crowded in a baby
6:09and in 77 september 77 we went
6:13to the appeal court and we sat there for
6:15a month
6:16and we listened to all the evidence and
6:18i remember vividly joel connell given
6:21evidence
6:22and michael vapor stopping him in
6:23mid-throe saying you don't have to
6:25respond
6:26and they accepted their evidence a month
6:29later at the end of
6:30october they came back and they give
6:32their judgment and roscoe who was the
6:34presiding judge along with lot no more
6:37said we accepted the four people in the
6:39duck who become known as the guilt of
6:40four
6:41didn't bomb guilford and all likely who
6:44had never been to guilford
6:46and in the case of helen armstrong we
6:48accept that they didn't bomb footage
6:50but we think it's possible they may have
6:52known the people who did it although we
6:54have no evidence to show
6:57that they were connected and he sent us
6:59back to field for about 12 years
7:02or 12 years my dad died
7:06and i knew that some of the attackers
7:08want to get out because i shouldn't have
7:09been known
7:12now the profession of terrorism was
7:14brought in for a specific
7:16thing to deal with the ira
7:20within five years it had sinked on
7:23in the mainstream policy and was now
7:26being used against the unions
7:29margaret thatcher used it against the
7:31coal miners
7:33so things that they introduce as a
7:36security measure
7:37designed for one specific thing
7:41has a habit of saving it and when that
7:43type of legislation
7:45sits in the mainstream policies we all
7:48become vulnerable
7:49nobody's here i thought this
7:52only happened to other people when this
7:55happened
7:56i couldn't believe this i thought this
7:58is what you see on tv
7:59or this is what happens in africa or
8:01china somewhere else it doesn't happen
8:04here
8:05but it does happen here and it's closer
8:07than what people
8:08think but i think that myself and paddy
8:12had this unquenchable the desire
8:15and determination never to let this go
8:17and we just developed a written campaign
8:19until
8:20and i was with johnny cooper and mickey
8:21mcmahon who patting knew well who
8:23literally kennedy wrote a book about
8:28that the case is referred back six times
8:30to the open court
8:32and had drew enormous legal and
8:34religious support
8:36and the case failed and somehow
8:39we knew we were going to get get our
8:40names cleared and who helped us
8:43was it the average was it the irish
8:46government
8:47was it the irish press was it irish
8:50documentary companies no it wasn't it
8:53wasn't they did nothing
8:55they did absolutely nothing they didn't
8:58come and see us in jail
9:01until british tv documentary companies
9:03admit documentaries about his warden
9:05action first tuesday
9:07panorama the times written letters of
9:09others
9:11of course they have to ask
9:14they act with us don't tell your story
9:17when my dad died in 1980 on wednesday
9:21the 23rd
9:22of january gareth fitzgerald had just
9:26been elected
9:28and there was uproar at the birmingham
9:30six as a patriot
9:31he had put knocked back and my dad and
9:34he got hold of
9:35the head of the forensic department
9:36professor donovan
9:38and he called him in and given a million
9:40and a half hours pawns
9:42they investigate the forensic then sent
9:45into some people to jail
9:46and a year literally came back and he
9:48threw report on the table
9:50that said my dad was innocent the
9:52maguire's runners and department on six
9:54percent
9:55what did gareth fitzgerald do he threw
9:58it in the bed
9:59he threw the report in the bin
10:03we have got a congressman called
10:05hamilton who is a republican congressman
10:08who was given a half a million dollars
10:10grant from the american government to
10:12investigate
10:14the forensics and released to the
10:16maguire seven in the birmingham six
10:19and shawn dominant the first secretary
10:22of the washington hemisphere
10:24went to hamilton fish and says stay away
10:27from this
10:28we've had it from the horse's mouth
10:30we've had it from the ira
10:32and an irish government they're up there
10:34an accident
10:35so all the irish problems keep us in
10:38jail
10:39we have enormous their gratitude forever
10:43to the likes of the ross green and grant
10:46mccabe
10:47from first tuesday uh who's the guy
10:50party for more than actually
10:53he didn't kill brad yeah incorporated
10:57in my crib all those people who took
11:00the time because here's what it was
11:02about them
11:03they were actually quintessential
11:06english people who heard about british
11:07justice and reputation
11:10such as gareth bros they didn't want
11:13these miscarriages of justice happening
11:15earning their judiciary
11:20being held up their ridicule eventually
11:2512 years after our force of people's
11:27refuse
11:28we were granted a second appointment and
11:31it wasn't an event
11:33it was a capitulation by the crime and
11:36the case
11:37and i feel cheated to this day because i
11:39wanted to have an opinion
11:40i could get back into the witness box
11:43and
11:43say what i said in 1975
11:47that you kept me naked you heard me you
11:50tortured me you took me out you put guns
11:53in my mouth you had my
11:54executions i wanted some form of justice
11:58but roy outlet
12:00the prosecution he put it on
12:04the other dead contemporaries known
12:06sport contemporaneous
12:08my alibis have been suppressed and
12:10hidden
12:11and of course three weeks after getting
12:14up
12:15three weeks off to get no lord danny
12:19says oh i've been away and while i was
12:22away the guilford four have been
12:24released
12:25and though they may be innocent along
12:27with the borrowing hopsicks
12:29wouldn't it have been better that we
12:30should have
12:32to preserve the integrity of british
12:35justice
12:36now i'm just going to touch on something
12:37else here
12:40this is the divided community we come
12:42from and when people ask me to get
12:44involved in justice ireland watch
12:46i said what are the conditions and
12:48probably the only condition
12:50that i would get involved in if it was
12:52across community
12:54because my human rights is no different
12:57from someone from the chateau
12:59or from the falls or from east belfast
13:01or from saudi arabia it's the same
13:06when they get away with doing it with me
13:09everybody
13:10is vulnerable now the one thing
13:14we have politics and dividers we have
13:16religion that providers we have cultural
13:17providers
13:19the one thing that should you notice
13:22as human rights abuses miscarriages of
13:25justice
13:26and injustice and
13:29i've been told i can talk here forever
13:42because we couldn't respect the uniform
13:44place
13:45because it's not the first at a car
13:48accident
13:49they're the first column people are born
13:50in buildings
13:52and you've got a friday and saturday
13:53night and drugs killing each other
13:56and you have to have that better respect
14:00but is there human rights any more
14:03valuable than mine
14:04no my problem is with the clean clothes
14:08the special branch the the the
14:12specially designed undercover
14:15who seem to be above the law who create
14:19miscarriages of justice
14:21who take part in organizing the
14:23miscarriage of justice
14:25and somebody once said to me how could
14:26you stop miscarriages of justice
14:29well i believe if someone is found
14:31guilty
14:32at the end of a case where there's been
14:35an acquittal
14:36or a conviction has been overturned that
14:38the police
14:39who fabricated the evidence or tortured
14:42themselves
14:43or intimidate people should be given the
14:46same sins as the person who was
14:49who they helped convict wrongfully
14:53and with that i'll say thank you
14:58you

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