"I don't want to spend the rest of my life being known only as one of the Guildford Four," wrote Gerry Conlon, in 1990, one year after his terrorism sentence was quashed by the Lord Chief Justice and after spending fifteen years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. In The Name of The Father and the film of the same name, starring Daniel Day Lewis and Emma Thompson and directed by Jim Sheridan, has done much to maintain Conlon's fame as a quarter of the Guildford Four. But he should also now be known as a talented writer and a relentless campaigner for justice. His story is a cautionary tale of what impact fear can have on civil liberties, and the danger of wrongful conviction.
The Guildford Pub Bombing
Gerry Conlon was one of four men accused of and charged for bombing "The Horse and Groom" pub in Guildford on 5 October 1974. Four soldiers and one civilian were killed, and sixty-five other people were injured. It was a dreadful atrocity and was quickly followed up by a similar incident in Birmingham in November 1974.
The "Troubles" had come to the UK, and the police were under a great deal of political pressure and the pressure of public opinion to find the perpetrators. In the end, in both cases, the wrong people were arrested, charged and imprisoned. In the case of the Guildford pub bombings, Guiseppe Conlon (Gerry's father, charged on bomb-making charges) died in prison.