{{Short description|Irishman wrongly convicted of terrorism}} {{Use British English|date=May 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}} {{Infobox person | name = Gerry Conlon | image = Gerry Conlon at the time of his release.jpg | caption = Conlon outside the Court of Appeal at the time of his release | birth_name = Gerard Patrick Conlon | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1954|03|01}}<ref>{{cite book | last1 = McKee | first1 = Grant | last2 = Franey | first2 = Ros | title = Time Bomb: Irish Bombers, English Justice and the Guildford Four | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing | year = 1998 | page = 102 | isbn = 978-0747500995}}</ref> | birth_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2014|06|21|1954|03|01}} | death_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland | criminal_charge = Guildford pub bombings on 5 October 1974<ref name="BBC timeline">{{cite news|title=Guildford Four pub bombing files 'show fresh evidence'|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38239103|access-date=31 March 2018|publisher=BBC}}</ref> | criminal_penalty = Convicted on 22 October 1975 and sentenced to life imprisonment<ref name="BBC timeline"/> | criminal_status = Conviction quashed by Court of Appeal on 19 October 1989<ref name="BBC timeline"/> }}
'''Gerard Patrick Conlon''' (1 March 1954 – 21 June 2014) was an Irish man known for being one of the Guildford Four who spent 15 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of being a Provisional IRA bomber.
==Biography== Gerard Conlon was born in Belfast and grew up at 7 Peel Street on the corner of Mary Street in the impoverished but close-knit community of the Lower Falls Road.<ref>{{cite news|title=Gerry Conlon hadn't an ounce of republicanism in him, says biographer and boyhood pal|url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/gerry-conlon-hadnt-an-ounce-of-republicanism-in-him-says-biographer-and-boyhood-pal-36201704.html|access-date=19 November 2018|newspaper=Belfast Telegraph}}</ref> He described his childhood as happy. His father was Giuseppe Conlon, a factory worker, and his mother was Sarah Conlon, a hospital cleaner.<ref name="Guardian">{{cite news|title=Gerry Conlon obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/22/gerry-conlon|access-date=24 June 2014|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref>
In 1974, at age 20, Conlon went to England to seek work and to escape the everyday violence he was encountering on the streets of Belfast. He was living with a group of squatters in London when he was arrested for the Guildford pub bombings, which occurred on 5 October 1974.<ref name="G&M" />
Conlon, along with fellow Irishmen Paul Michael Hill and Paddy Armstrong and Englishwoman Carole Richardson, known as the Guildford Four,<ref name="guardian">{{cite news|author=Ross Franey|title=Trial and error|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1989/oct/18/guildford-four-northernireland|access-date=21 October 2020|newspaper=The Guardian|date= 18 October 1989}}</ref> were convicted on 22 October 1975 of planting two bombs a year earlier in the Surrey town of Guildford, which killed five people and injured dozens more.<ref name="BBC timeline"/> The four were sentenced to life in prison.<ref name="BBC timeline"/> At their trial the judge, Lord John Donaldson, told the defendants, "If hanging were still an option you would have been executed."<ref name="G&M" />
Conlon continued to protest his innocence, insisting that police had tortured him into making a false confession. On 19 October 1989,<ref name="BBC timeline"/> his position was vindicated when the Guildford Four were freed after the Court of Appeal in London ruled that police had fabricated the handwritten interrogation notes used in the conviction. Crucial evidence proving Conlon could not have carried out the bombings had been held back by the police from the original trial.<ref name="G&M" /> Most notably, the police falsely claimed that they had been unable to locate Charles Burke, a homeless man with whom Conlon had been using drugs in a local park at the time of the bombings.{{cn|date=June 2024}}
A group of Conlon's relatives, collectively known as the Maguire Seven, were convicted of being part of the bombing campaign and also spent decades in prison. Among them was his father, Giuseppe, who had travelled to London from Belfast to help his son mount a legal defence, and who died in prison in 1980.<ref>{{cite book |last=Coogan |first=Tim |author-link= |date=2002 |title=The IRA |url= |location=New York |publisher=St. Martins Press |page=391 |isbn=0-312-29416-6}}</ref> In 1991, the Maguire Seven were also exonerated. By this time they had all either served their prison sentences in full or, in the case of Giuseppe Conlon, died.<ref name="G&M" /> Scientists had falsely asserted that the hands of each defendant had tested positive for nitroglycerine.<ref name="Guardian" />
[[File:Michael Mansfield QC 01.jpg|thumb|Michael Mansfield QC gives the first Gerry Conlon Memorial Lecture at St. Mary's College Belfast in January 2015]] After emerging from the Court of Appeal as a free man, Conlon said: "I have been in prison for something I did not do. I am totally innocent. The Maguire Seven are innocent. Let's hope the Birmingham Six are freed".<ref>{{cite news|title=Gerry Conlon: the man who served 15 years for a crime he did not commit|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/21/gerry-conlon-dies-ira-belfast-guildford-four|date=24 June 2014|access-date=25 January 2026|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref> Conlon was represented by human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce, who also secured the release of the Birmingham Six.
Conlon described his experience of injustice in his book ''Proved Innocent'' (1990).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/1820372|title=Proved innocent : the story of Gerry Conlon of the Guilford Four /|first=Gerry|last=Conlon|date=4 August 1990|publisher=Hamish Hamilton|isbn=9780241130650}}</ref> He was portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis in the 1993 film ''In the Name of the Father''.<ref name="BigNews" />
After his release from prison, Conlon had problems adjusting to civilian life, suffering two nervous breakdowns, attempting suicide, and becoming addicted to alcohol and other drugs. He eventually recovered and became a campaigner against various miscarriages of justice in the United Kingdom and around the world.<ref name="G&M">{{cite news|title=Gerry Conlon, wrongfully imprisoned for IRA attack, dies at 60|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/gerry-conlon-wrongfully-imprisoned-for-ira-attack-dies-at-60/article19302678/#dashboard/follows/|access-date=24 June 2014|publisher=The Globe and Mail (from New York Times News Service)|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140623233926/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/gerry-conlon-wrongfully-imprisoned-for-ira-attack-dies-at-60/article19302678/#dashboard/follows/|archive-date=23 June 2014|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Gerry Conlon also made a cameo appearance in the 1997 film ''Face '' alongside Robert Carlyle.
==Death== Conlon died of lung cancer on 21 June 2014 in his native Belfast home, surrounded by family members.<ref name="G&M" /><ref name="BigNews">{{cite news|title=Gerry Conlon dies aged 60 of cancer|url=http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php/sid/223183699/scat/aba4168066a10b8d/ht/Gerry-Conlon-dies-aged-60-of-cancer|access-date=24 June 2014|publisher=Big News Network}}{{Dead link|date=October 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref> His funeral was held at St Peter's Cathedral in Belfast. The ceremony was presided over by Father Ciaran Dallat and saw the participation of the other members of the Guildford Four, the Maguire Seven, Irish Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and Conlon's former lawyer Gareth Peirce.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2014-06-27 |title=Guildford Four's Gerry Conlon: Funeral takes place in Belfast |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-28057595 |access-date=}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * [https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/22/gerry-conlon-dies-freed-guildford-four ''The Guardian'', Guildford Four's Gerry Conlon dies of cancer in Belfast, aged 60, 22 June 2014]
== External links == *{{IMDb name|0174840}} *[http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/gerry-conlon-wrongly-convicted-of-guildford-pub-bombings-dies-in-belfast-aged-60-30373302.html ''Belfast Telegraph'' article] *[https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/gerry-conlon-of-the-guildford-four-who-was-wrongly-jailed-for-15-years-dies-9553880.html ''Standard'' article]
{{Miscarriage of justice in the UK}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conlon, Gerry}} Category:1954 births Category:2014 deaths Category:Deaths from lung cancer in Northern Ireland Category:Overturned convictions in the United Kingdom Category:People acquitted of murder Category:People from Belfast Category:British people wrongfully convicted of murder