Gerry Conlon joined his mother Sarah and other members of his family for a special Mass in St Peter's Church in west Belfast last week to mark the 25th anniversary of the death of Guiseppe Conlon. Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor, reports.
They hope that shortly the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, will publicly apologise for one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice of the Troubles and thus bring a level of relief and comfort to the Conlon family.
Guiseppe Conlon, from the Falls Road area of Belfast, who suffered from tuberculosis and emphysema, died aged 56 on January 23rd, 1980 having been sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1976.
He was arrested after travelling to England to arrange a legal defence for his son Gerry, who with three others was convicted of the 1974 Guildford and Woolwich pub bombings. Guiseppe Conlon was charged with bomb-making along with six others, including Annie Maguire, who became known as the Maguire Seven. After several years of campaigning by the prisoners' families, politicians, clergy and journalists the Guildford Four convictions were overturned in 1989, while the Maguire Seven convictions were quashed two years later.
It was claimed at the time of the arrests that Paul Hill and Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four had been taught to make bombs by Gerry Conlon's aunt, Annie Maguire. Guiseppe Conlon was arrested after visiting Mrs Maguire's home in London to try to prepare a legal defence for his son.
Guiseppe Conlon, Annie Maguire, her husband Paddy, their two sons, Pat (14) and Vincent (17), Sean Smyth and Pat O'Neill (35) were all sentenced to varying terms in prison after they were found to have handled nitroglycerine.
Serious questions however were raised about the validity of the scientific tests that purportedly yielded traces of nitroglycerine, and a slow-building campaign for the release of the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven started.