Guildford Four

The Guildford pub bombings took place on 5 October 1974. The IRA detonated two 6 pound gelignite bombs in a pub popular with British soldiers. The bombings took place at the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland and British police were therefore under immense pressure to arrest the perpetrators. They arrested four people. None of them actually committed the offence.

Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill, Patrick Armstrong and Carole Richardson were falsely convicted of the bombings in October 1975 and became known as the Guildford Four.

Gerry Conlon had come to London from Belfast after his father paid for his ticket. He had been living at a hippie commune with Paul Hill but both were soon on the street after a dispute with the other residents.

They were arrested and signed confessions under coercion. They had guns pointed at their heads by British police officers. Gerry Conlon was told that his father would be killed if he did not sign the document.

Conlon was released after fifteen years in prison. His father Guiseppe, who was sentenced to twelve years for allegedly possessing nitroglycerin, died in prison.

The film In The Name Of The Father tells the story of the wrongful convictions.

The convictions were overturned in the early 1990s and Tony Blair issued a public apology in 2005. "I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and injustice...they deserve to be completely and publicly exonerated."