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| Born | Gerard Conlon (1954-03-01)March 1, 1954 Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK |
| Died | June 21, 2014(2014-06-21) (aged 60) Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Cause of death | Lung cancer |
| Parent(s) | Giuseppe Conlon, Sarah Conlon |
Gerard "Gerry" Conlon (1 March 1954 – 21 June 2014) was a member of the Guildford Four who spent 14 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of being IRA bombers.
Gerry Conlon was born in Belfast and grew up in the impoverished but close-knit community on 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.
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 a deadly 1974 bombing.
Conlon along with fellow Irishmen Paul Hill and Paddy Armstrong and an English woman, Carole Richardson, became the so-called Guildford Four convicted in 1975 of planting two bombs a year earlier in the London suburb of Guildford which killed five people and injured dozens more. The four were sentenced to life in prison. At their trial the judge told the defendants, “If hanging were still an option you would have been executed.”
Conlon continued to protest his innocence insisting that police had tortured him into making a false confession. In October, 1989 his position was vindicated, when the Guildford Four were freed after the Court of Appeal in London ruled that police had fabricated the hand-written interrogation notes used in the conviction. Crucial evidence proving Conlon could not have carried out the bombings had not been presented at the original trial.
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. Scientists had falsely asserted that the hands of each defendant had tested positive for nitro-glycerine.
After emerging from the Court of Appeal 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.
Conlon had an articulate voice to vividly communicate his experience of injustice in his book Proved Innocent (1991). After that, he became a leading character in the film In the Name of the Father, where he was played by Daniel Day-Lewis.
After his release from prison, Conlon had problems adjusting to civilian life, suffering two nervous breakdowns, attempting suicide, and becoming addicted to drink and drugs. He eventually recovered and became a campaigner for various miscarriages of justice in Britain and around the world.
Conlon battled with lung cancer for a lengthy period before his death on 21 June 2014 in his native Belfast, survived by his partner, daughter and two sisters, Ann and Bridie.
References
- ^ "Gerry Conlon obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Gerry Conlon, wrongfully imprisoned for IRA attack, dies at 60". The Globe and Mail (from New York Times News Service). Retrieved 24 June 2014.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - "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.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Gerry Conlon dies aged 60 of cancer". Big News Network. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help)
Further reading
- The Guardian, Obituary 22 June 2014
- The Guardian, Guildford Four's Gerry Conlon dies of cancer in Belfast, aged 60, 22 June 2014