Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair sought closure on one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history yesterday with an unprecedented public apology to the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven.
Mr Blair's call for their complete exoneration was broadcast after a highly emotional meeting with the members of the Conlon and Maguire families in his office at the House of Commons. Afterwards - carrying a personal letter from Mr Blair for his mother Sarah, the widow of the late Guiseppe Conlon - Mr Gerry Conlon said he had got all he had wanted from Mr Blair "and more".
Declaring herself equally delighted, Mrs Annie Maguire said she would continue to pray for Mr Blair and his family.
In 1974, a bomb at a pub in Guildford killed five people and injured more than 100. Mr Gerry Conlon, Mr Paddy Armstrong, Mr Paul Hill and Ms Carole Richardson, were jailed for life and became known as the Guildford Four. Mr Hill and Mr Armstrong were also jailed for the Woolwich bombing in which two people died the same year.
Later Gerry Conlon's father, Guiseppe, and members of the Maguire family were arrested and jailed. They became known as the Maguire Seven. Anne Maguire and family were convicted of possessing nitro-glycerine which it was alleged was passed to the IRA to make bombs. Mrs Maguire and her husband Patrick were sentenced to 14 years and her two youngest sons were imprisoned for five and four years respectively. Her brother, William, brother-in-law Guiseppe Conlon and friend Patrick O'Neill got 12 years.
Mr Blair recalled those who died and were injured in the bombings and said "their loss, the loss suffered by their families, will never go away". Howeverk, it served no one "for the wrong people to be convicted for such an awful crime.
"...There was a miscarriage of justice in the case of Gerard Conlon and all the Guildford Four as well as Giuseppe Conlon and Annie Maguire and all of the Maguire Seven."
Mr Blair went on: "I recognise the trauma that the conviction caused the Conlon and Maguire families and the stigma which wrongly attaches to them to this day. I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and such an injustice.
" They deserve to be completely and publicly exonerated."
Mr Blair had been expected to make his apology on the Commons floor during Prime Minister's Questions. However, it emerged that Commons Speaker Mr Michael Martin might not call the SDLP's Mr Eddie McGrady to ask his planned question, following early-morning media coverage anticipating what Mr Blair was to say to MPs.
Mr Blair broadcast his apology instead and met the families in his private rooms. Mrs Maguire said the resulting encounter was better than she could have hoped. "I think it has come out better because it was like a family thing... You could see he was really sincere. As Gerard Conlon said, 'you'd have thought he was slapped across the face' when he heard individual ones telling him what age they were and what happened to them."
Mr Conlon agreed: "I'm happier than I have been in 31 years. Tony Blair went much further than he could have done on the floor of the House of Commons . He met us privately, he spoke to every one of us, he took time, he listened to us, he exceeded our expectations in apologising to us, he said it was long overdue."
Mrs Maguire's son, Patrick, who was 13 when he was arrested, said it was an emotional experience: "I could see the shock on his face. All I wanted was to hear the word 'sorry'. But it was a good day and I thanked him."
Mr Blair signed Mr Maguire's copy of Robert Kee's book, Trial and Error, with the inscription: "I am so sorry it took so long." However, he faced criticism from Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble, and Conservative spokesman Mr David Lidington, who questioned why he should apologise for matters that were the responsibility of the courts rather than government. The DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley renewed his call for the appointment of a Victims Commissioner.