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Oct 19, 2023 · On 19 October 1989, the Guildford Four were released after 15 years of wrongful imprisonment. Gerard Patrick "Gerry" Conlon, Paul Michael Hill, Patrick Josep...
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- ITN Archive
Mar 6, 2020 · The Guildford Four were released in October 1989 after the Avon and Somerset police had discovered evidence which showed that, as the Lord Chief Justice was to state at the hearing of the appeal when the convictions were quashed, ‘the police must have lied’. That evidence was never shown to the Guildford Four.
- Paul Hill – The First Man Arrested For The Bombing
- The Trial's Judge Handed Hill A Life Sentence
- An Active Ira Unit Confessed to The Bombings
- Hill Was Moved from Prison to Prison
- Corbyn Campaigned For The Four's Release
- The Pogues Penned Song About The Four
- Soviet Support For The Four Left Thatcher Enraged
- Hill Married Into The Kennedy Family
- An Oscar-Nominated Film Was Released Four Years After The Men's Release
- It Took 26 Years For Them to Receive An Official Apology
Paul Hill was arrested November 29, 1974 his friend Gerry Conlon (pictured above) was arrested November 30 and their old Belfast school mate Paddy Armstrong and his English girlfriend Carole Richardson were arrested on December 3.
At their trial, Paul Hill was given what was, at the time, the longest sentence ever handed down by an English court; life with no chance of parole until great age or infirmity. The judge's chief regret was that he couldn't hang the three men.
In January 1977, an active IRA service unit, nicknamed the Balcombe Street gang, issued a statement in court confessing they carried out the Guildford and Woolwich bombings and that the Four were completely innocent.
Paul Hill was ‘ghosted’ more than 50 times during his 15 years in prison. ‘Ghosted’ is when a prisoner is moved without warning to another prison, usually in the middle of the night.
Jeremy Corbyn was a guest at Paul’s wedding to his American girlfriend inside Long Lartin prison. Corbyn was a tireless campaigner to free the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six. The Sunstory on the morning of the wedding was labelled ‘IRA Pig To Wed’.
The Pogues song, Street Of Sorrow/Birmingham Six, about both the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six, was banned under the same legislation used in the late 1980s to stop the broadcast of direct interviews with members of Sinn Fein.
In the late 1980s it was reported that Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev brought up the campaign to free the Guildford Four in a private meeting with PM Margaret Thatcher. Maggie was not pleased.
Paul Hill married Courtney Kennedy, daughter of the late Bobby Kennedy and niece of the late John F Kennedy. The couple lived in America and on the west coast of Ireland and have a daughter. They divorced ten years ago.
In The Name Of The Father,the 1993 film made about this miscarriage of justice, with Daniel Day-Lewis as Gerry Conlon and John Lynch as Paul Hill, was nominated for seven Oscars.
The Four would have to wait another 16 years after being freed, until 2005, for an apology; when then PM Tony Blair said sorry to the Four and the Maguire Seven. Update: The play Your Ever Lovingfeatured and won Best play of Edinburgh Fringe 2017 . ** Originally Published on: Apr 11, 2016
- Irish Post
Jun 23, 2023 · Some 46 people were arrested by the Surrey Police and ultimately four people, known as the Guildford Four, stood trial in September and October 1975 based solely on the statements that they had made to police whilst in custody without access to legal advice and after suffering, as they testified at their trial, outrageous and criminal behaviour ...
The Guildford Four were released from jail 25 years ago, after serving years in jail for crimes they did not commit. The prison letters of one of the men, Paul Hill, tell his story.
The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were two groups of people, mostly Irish, who were wrongly convicted in English courts in 1975 and 1976 for the Guildford pub bombings of 5 October 1974, [1] and the Woolwich pub bombing of 7 November 1974. All the convictions were eventually quashed after long campaigns for justice, and the cases, along with ...
Dec 29, 2017 · 22 October 1975 - Paul Hill, Gerry Conlon, Patrick Armstrong and Carole Richardson - the Guildford Four - jailed for life 19 October 1989 - After years of campaigning, the Court of Appeal quashes ...
