Gerry Conlon

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Gerard "Gerry" Conlon (born March 1, 1954 in Belfast , Northern Ireland ; † June 21, 2014 ibid) was a British author and a victim of a miscarriage of justice . He and two other men and a woman were sentenced to life imprisonment after a bomb attack by the IRA in 1974 . The four became known as the Guildford Four . The verdict was overturned in 1989 for proven innocence and Conlon was immediately released from custody. His fate and that of his father Giuseppe form the basis of the film In the Name of the Father (1993).

Life

Conlon grew up in a Catholic family in Belfast. Although he was involved in petty crime and had been a member of the Fianna Éireann youth organization in 1972 , he was banned from there because of his alcohol and drug use and was not a member of the IRA. While he was looking for work with his friend Paul Hill in England in 1974, the IRA bombed two pubs in Guildford , killing five people. Conlon was arrested in Belfast on November 30, 1974 and, like Hill, was forced to confess by the British police in Guildford a few days later. On October 22, 1975, he was sentenced to life imprisonment on the basis of the confessions. The ruling stipulated that Conlon had to serve at least 30 years.

Conlon's father, Giuseppe, was arrested that same year and, along with Conlon's aunt Annie Maguire and members of her family, were charged with making IRA bombs based on questionable evidence ( Maguire Seven ) . Giuseppe Conlon was sentenced to 12 years in prison and died in prison in 1980. His sentence was overturned in 1991. The Guildford Four case was re-examined in 1989. It turned out, among other things, that the police had been able to verify Gerry Conlon's alibi in January 1975, but kept this information under lock and key so that it could not be used in the proceedings. The sentence was overturned on October 19, 1989 and Conlon was released from custody.

After his release, Conlon had to seek psychiatric treatment for a post-traumatic stress disorder with nightmares and nervous breakdowns and had to contend with alcohol and drug addiction. He published his autobiography Proved Innocent , the 1993 Daniel Day-Lewis as Gerry Conlon, entitled In the Name of the Father (Engl. In the Name of the Father ) was filmed.

Conlon died on June 21, 2014 at the age of 60 in Belfast of complications from longstanding cancer .

Publications

  • Proved innocent. The story of Gerry Conlon of the Guildford four. Hamish Hamilton, London 1990, ISBN 978-0-241-13065-0 .
    • also under the title: In the name of the father. Plume, New York 1993, ISBN 978-0-452-27278-1 .
    • German: In the name of the father. The book about the film. 1st edition. Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1994, ISBN 3-404-13592-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ British justice victim Gerry Conlon dies. In: Die Welt from June 21, 2014 (accessed June 23, 2014).
personal data
SURNAME Conlon, Gerry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Conlon, Gerard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British author and victim of a miscarriage of justice
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Belfast , Northern Ireland
DATE OF DEATH June 21, 2014
Place of death Belfast , Northern Ireland