How long was gerry conlon in jail

The family said: "He helped us to survive what we were not meant to survive. We recognise that what he achieved by fighting for justice for us had a far, far greater importance — it forced the world's closed eyes to be opened to injustice. It forced unimaginable wickedness to be acknowledged.

We believe it changed the course of history. We thank him for his life and we thank all his many friends for their love. The Conlons added: "He brought life, love, intelligence, wit and strength to our family through its darkest hours".

Conlon, who was from the Lower Falls area of Belfast , watched his father Giuseppe die in prison as one of the so-called Maguire Seven, which also included Conlon's aunt Annie.

They were arrested after being falsely accused of taking part in the same IRA bombing campaign in southern England during the mids. When he entered prison, Conlon's father was suffering from emphysema and had just undergone chemotherapy. He died in Peirce, who was with the Conlon family when Gerry died, added her own tribute. She said: "Once a community has been made suspect en masse every organ of the state will feel entitled, in fact obliged, to discover proof of their suspicions.

The example of what happened to Gerry and his entire family should haunt us forever. Sadly these lessons are jettisoned when the next suspect community is constructed. Inquest reports in said the Prison Service tried to treat Mr Conlon several times for a chest illness, but he died of natural causes from heart failure caused by his condition. The family always claimed Mr Conlon was only given non-prescription cough medicine. Descriptions over Mr Conlon's condition have varied over the years to include TB, lung cancer and emphysema.

Documents in the files attributed his death to TB. Treatment given now for TB involves taking antibiotics for several months. IRA blast pre-inquest hearings announced. Reporter 'threatened' over IRA bombings. Guildford Four man's sister's truth plea. Image source, BBC archive. Patrick "Guiseppe" Conlon already had tuberculosis when he was jailed on 4 March Mr Conlon died four years into his year prison term. Guildford Four man's 'living hell' revealed Pub bombing files 'show fresh evidence' 'End secrecy' over IRA pub bombings.

On 3 March , Mr Whitelaw acknowledged there had been a leak to the press. Gerry Conlon continued to blame himself for his father's death after his release, said his sister Ann McKernan right. A chronology referred to a decision on 24 April that Mr Conlon was not eligible for early release on medical grounds.

Running out! Get one of the girls to put the kettle on, darlin'. Then he'd say: 'Don't you fuckin' dare come round here! I was his nemesis; I used to terrorise that poor man. He met his match with me. And every now and then, when he really pissed me off, I used to go around and smash all his windows. It was a mental relationship, but it was just how it was.

My mum tried to get me sectioned 'cause I used to turn up at his house and wreck the place and rip all his clothes up. The madness of Angie was more than matched by Gerry's anarchy. Angie recalled: "I came back one day and no one was in the flat. So I found out from a dealer that he was in a mate's house and I went round there, and there he was with this Chilean call girl called Beatrice.

You must have heard of her: 'Who's next, Beatrice? Everybody knows her. I didn't mind him being with Beatrice, but I did mind that he tried to hide it from me.

Conlon was a familiar figure for the call-girls of London. But he wasn't shagging them. Angie replied: "Gerry didn't need to shag call girls. He was a charmer; he could've shagged any girl he wanted. He'd bring them in, drive them mad with his stories, kick them out, and then bring in another one. My Gerry loved to talk, and we'd all heard his stories. I could've told you what he was going to say before he said it.

Angie said of his spending: "He was doing ounces and ounces of crack a day I remember one day he came home like the Pied Piper, with maybe 20 people behind him, and he said to me: 'I'm buying them trainers in the morning'. And I said: 'Fucking what? Look at them; the poor bastards'. But that was just him; that was him. He wanted to give everything to everyone. Fucking hell, he was literally giving his money away. It was like he didn't really want it. He never passed a beggar in the street without dropping them a tenner - all the beggars knew him by his first fucking name!

It was like he didn't really want the money. I used to go mad. We'll see who your friends are when you run out of money and you've got fuck all in your bank balance. This iconic image of him was captured emerging from the Old Bailey in London 15 years later and declaring his innocence after his conviction was quashed. I am totally innocent," he told the waiting crowds. The case was one of the best-known instances of a miscarriage of justice in British legal history. At the time of their sentencing, the trial judge, Mr Justice Donaldson, told the Guildford Four: "If hanging were still an option, you would have been executed.

Mr Conlon's father Giuseppe, who was also jailed as part of a discredited investigation into a supposed bomb-making family - the Maguire Seven - died in prison. In June , then-prime minister Tony Blair became the first senior politician to apologise to the Guildford Four.