Proved Innocent: The Story of Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four (Gerry Conlon) – Adapted: Books to Movies (1990) (Gerry Conlon) QUICK THOUGHTS ● Phil Svitek ● Marisa Serafini AUTHOR BACKGROUND (Gerry Conlon) ● Gerry Conlon was born in Belfast in 1954 and grew up in the impoverished but ​ ​ close-knit community of the Lower Falls Road ● He described his childhood as happy ● His father was Giuseppe Conlon, a factory worker, and his mother was Sarah Conlon, a hospital cleaner ● 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 ● In November 1974, the then 20-year-old was arrested for the Guildford pub bombings ● After he was convicted, he moved between English prisons 22 times ● Spent five and a half years in solitary confinement ● Gerry Conlon was released from prison on 19th October 1989 ○ Conlon spent the best part of £120,000 in six weeks on crack cocaine as he struggled to come to terms with life outside prison. ○ After his release, Conlon suffered two nervous breakdowns and attempted suicide ● In the Name of the Son: The Gerry Conlon Story delves into the battles faced by ​ the west Belfast man following his release from prison after he was falsely convicted, written by childhood friend Richard O’Rawe ● Received the cash for the 1993 hit film In the Name of the Father, in which he was played by Daniel Day-Lewis. He forked out up to £10,000 a day on drugs and giving handouts to people he viewed as needy. ● Author of In the Name of the Son, Richard O’Rawe stated: ​ ​ ○ “Gerry put on this wonderful person in public where he was so confident and cocky jack the lad and everything else, so when he went home he had nightmare after nightmare - every night he had nightmares. He took drugs to try and keep himself awake so he wouldn’t sleep, so he wouldn’t have the nightmares.” ● Conlon battled with lung cancer for a lengthy period before his death on 21 June 2014 in his native Belfast. ● In June 2013, Conlon co-founded Justice Watch Ireland, a voluntary-run oversight group set up to investigate potential miscarriages of justice in Ireland ● When Conlon got out of prison he went on to be an outspoken advocate for the Birmingham Six, 6 men wrongly convicted of pub bombings in Birmingham ● When asked what would have happened to him if he hadn’t been arrested for the bombings, Conlon said “I would have gone to jail anyway, because I was a thief” DEVELOPMENT/CONCEPTION (BOOK) ● A 256 page autobiography ● Published in 1990, one year after he was released from prison), by Hamish Hamilton ● Written with author David Pallister ● Conlon wrote this book at a time when he was putting his life back together again after fifteen years in prison ● He was also dealing with the fact that his father was arrested when he traveled to England to try and help his son. ● His father died in prison only a few years into his sentence ○ Conlon felt massively guilty that he had regained his freedom and his father, Giuseppe, never had ● Pallister was a fitting co-author as he is an investigative journalist specializing in miscarriages of justice, among other things ● Conlon argues in his autobiography that a key factor in his purportedly coerced confession was the fact that strengthened anti-terrorism laws passed in the early 1970s allowed the police to hold suspects without charges for up to a week, rather than the previous limit of 48 hours, and that he might have been able to withstand the treatment he had received had the original time limit been in effect. ● Conlon felt it was important to share his story in the hopes that he can prevent this from happening to someone else ● “I remember the night before I got out, looking up at the sky through the bars at Brixton prison and crying. Not crying with joy, but crying with anticipation of what lay ahead of me…because this had become my home.” - Gerry Conlon ● Conlon says the prison guards would defecate or put glass in his food. They encouraged other prisoners to ‘stab and scald’ him. Once the guards took him into a solitary cell, threw him on the ground face-down and injected him with paraldehyde – a paralysis-inducing drug – leaving him lying in the cell for three days. ● After his father’s death, Conlon wasn’t allowed out of prison to attend the funeral, nor was he allowed to call his grieving mother. REVIEWS/RECEPTION (BOOK) ● The book as well-received by readers and has a flurry of excellent reviews on websites like Amazon, GoodReads, etc. ● Conlon was said to have “an acute, intelligent and articulate raw voice which vividly communicated his experience of injustice” FILMIC ELEMENTS ● Prison Locations ● Screws ● Bombing ● Riots ● Courtrooms ● Father/Son HISTORICAL CONTEXT ● Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) became active in 1969, their ideology consisted of Irish republicanism and left-wing nationalism ● The group sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ● The Norman invasion of the late 12th century marked the beginning of more than 800 years of direct English rule in Ireland ● Their main opponent was the UK. They also feuded with the Republic of Ireland “Free State”, but were prohibited from carrying out any attacks against them. ● This period in time was when the relations between the IRA and England were at their most hostile ● In 1973 Ireland joined the European Community along with Britain and Denmark ​ ​ ● In 1975 the Birmingham 6 were arrested, while the Guildford 4 and Maguires were in prison. Also a pub bombing, most likely carried out by the IRA STORY LEGACY ● The Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven, together with the Birmingham Six, continue to be viewed as three of the most deplorable miscarriages of justice in British history ● They consisted of Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill, Patrick Armstrong and Carole Richardson ○ Carole Richardson being the youngest at only 17 years old ● The Guildford pub bombings occurred on 5 October 1974 when a subgroup of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated two 6-pound gelignite bombs at two pubs in Guildford, Surrey, England, both pubs were targeted due to their popularity among British Army personnel ● First bomb in Horse and Groom went off at 8:30 pm killing four soldiers and one civilian ○ Among the dead were 1 civilian, 2 members of the Scots Guards and 2 members of the Women's Royal Army Corps ○ Sixty-five other people were wounded ● Due to this explosion,The Seven Stars pub was evacuated and when the bomb inside detonated at 9pm, there were no serious injuries ● These attacks were the first in a year-long campaign by an IRA Active Service Unit (group of 5 to 8 members that carry out armed attacks), later became known as the Balcombe Street Gang ● In December 1974, police arrested the Guildford Four under extreme pressure from citizens to make progress on the bombing case ● All four confessed under coercion and later recanted their confessions ● Since Conlon had been in London at the time of the bombings and visited his aunt Annie Maguire, she and her family (including Conlon’s father) were arrested as well. Later known as the Maguire Seven ● The bombings contributed to the speedy and unchallenged passing of the Prevention of Terrorism Acts in November 1974 (only weeks before the arrests were made), which were then misused by the Metropolitan Police to force false confessions from the Guildford Four ○ It allowed the police to keep suspects for questioning for up to 7 days as opposed to 36 hours previously ● All 4 were convicted in October 1975 and sentenced to life in prison ○ All 4 had alibis that were not presented in court and other exonerating evidence was withheld from the defense ● The Maguire Seven were convicted of providing bomb-making material and other support in March 1976 and sentenced to terms varying between four and fourteen years ● The Guildford Four were held in prison for fifteen years ● Even when members of the IRA gave detailed confessions that they were the ones who placed the bombs, that still wasn't enough to get the innocent out of prison ● All 4 convictions were overturned in 1989 in the appeals court ○ It was proved the Guildford Four's convictions (and some Maguire’s) had been based on confessions obtained by torture and coercion; Including threats against family members, as well as the effects of drug withdrawal ○ Evidence specifically clearing the Four was not reported by the police ● Maguire convictions were overturned in 1991 ● Three police officers were charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, and found not guilty ● Tony Blair issued an apology in 2005 for the wrongly convicted involved in this case MOVIE(S) DEVELOPMENT ● Filmed 8 March 1993 - 4 June 1993 ● Director Sheridan is a veteran of films based on real-life Irish stories - My Left ​ Foot, The Boxer, Some Mother's Son, Bloody Sunday ● Conlon suggested to friend Johnny Depp that he play him in a film about to be produced ● Eventually he was portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis ○ Day-Lewis lost over 50 pounds in weight preparing for his role. ○ Day-Lewis also spent three days and nights in a jail cell. He was prevented from sleeping by a group of thugs, who would bang on the door every ten minutes with tin cups through the night, then was interrogated by three different teams of real Special Branch officers for nine hours. ● Film was directed by Irish director Jim Sheridan.