Which group carried out the pub bombings that men such as Gerard "Gerry" Conlon were convicted of?
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Gerry Conlon Gerard "Gerry" Conlon (1 March 1954 – 21 June 2014) was one of the Guildford Four who spent 15 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of being a Provisional IRA bomber.
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Guildford Four and Maguire Seven The Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven were the collective names of two groups whose convictions in English courts in 1975 and 1976 for the Guildford pub bombings of 5 October 1974 were eventually quashed after long campaigns for justice. The Guildford Four were convicted of bombings carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), and the Maguire Seven were convicted of handling explosives found during the investigation into the bombings. Both groups' convictions were eventually declared "unsafe and unsatisfactory" and reversed in 1989 and 1991 respectively after they had served up to 15–16 years in prison.
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1993 Bishopsgate bombing The Bishopsgate bombing occurred on Saturday 24 April 1993, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated a powerful truck bomb on Bishopsgate, a major thoroughfare in London's financial district, the City of London. Telephoned warnings were sent about an hour beforehand, but a news photographer was killed in the blast and 44 people were injured. The damage cost £350 million to repair. As a result of the bombing, which happened just over a year after the bombing of the nearby Baltic Exchange, a "ring of steel" was implemented to protect the City, and many firms introduced disaster recovery plans in case of further attacks or similar disasters.
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John McMichael John "Big John" McMichael (9 January 1948 – 22 December 1987) was a leading Northern Ireland loyalist who rose to become the most prominent and charismatic figure within the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) as the Deputy Commander and leader of its South Belfast Brigade. He was also commander of the organisation's cover name, the "Ulster Freedom Fighters" (UFF), overseeing an assassination campaign against prominent republican figures whose details were included in a notorious "shopping list" derived from leaked security forces documents. The UDA used the UFF name when it wished to claim responsibility for attacks, thus allowing it to remain a legal paramilitary organisation until August 1992 when it was proscribed by the British Government.
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Mountainview Tavern bombing 1975 On 5 April 1975 Irish Republican paramilitary members killed a UDA volunteer and four Protestant civilians in a gun and bomb attack at the Mountainview Tavern on the Shankill Road - the heart of Loyalist Belfast. The attack was claimed by the Republican Action Force believed to be a covername used by Provisional IRA (PIRA) Volunteers. Earlier in the day, two Catholic civilians were killed in a bomb attack in a Belfast pub carried out by the Protestant Action Force a name used by the Ulster Volunteer Force to claim some attacks. An elderly Catholic man was shot later the same night by Loyalists bringing the death toll to eight for the day.
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Reavey and O'Dowd killings The Reavey and O'Dowd killings were two co-ordinated gun attacks on 4 January 1976 in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Six Irish Catholic civilians died after members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group, broke into their homes and shot them. Three members of the Reavey family were shot at their home in Whitecross and four members of the O'Dowd family were shot at their home in Ballydougan. Two of the Reaveys and three of the O'Dowds were killed outright, with the third Reavey victim dying of brain hemorrhage almost a month later.
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Peter Barnes (Irish republican) Peter Barnes (c. 1907 – 7 February 1940) was a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and, along with James Richards (also known as James McCormack), participated in the Coventry explosion of 1939 which killed five people on 25 August 1939. Although he and McCormack admitted constructing the bomb, which was intended to be used to destroy a power station, they claimed not to be involved in planting the bomb.
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Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine killings The Tandragee killings took place in the early hours of Saturday 19 February 2000 on an isolated country road outside Tandragee, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Two young Protestant men, Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine, were beaten and repeatedly stabbed to death in what was part of a Loyalist feud between the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and their rivals, the breakaway Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). The men were not members of any loyalist paramilitary organisation. It later emerged in court hearings that Robb had made disparaging remarks about the killing of UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade leader Richard Jameson by an LVF gunman the previous month. This had angered the killers, themselves members of the Mid-Ulster UVF, and in retaliation they had lured the two men to the remote lane on the outskirts of town, where they killed and mutilated them.
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Pearse Jordan Pearse Jordan (12 December 1969 – 25 November 1992) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer killed by a Royal Ulster Constabulary officer. In 2001 the European Court of Human Rights ordered the British Government to pay fines to the families of several IRA men, including Jordan's, after holding that the men's human rights were violated by flawed inquest procedures. Following this judgement, British law regarding inquests was changed.
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Ramble Inn attack The Ramble Inn attack was a mass shooting at a rural pub on 2 July 1976 near Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is believed to have been carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary organisation. Six civilians were killed in the attack—five Protestants and one Catholic—and three others were wounded.
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Michael Michael Michael Michael (born 12 November 1957 in Birmingham) is the ex-boss of a criminal empire called the Organisation which was involved in drug smuggling, prostitution and money laundering. Following arrest, he turned supergrass/police informer, with his evidence leading to 34 people being jailed for a combined 170 years, and the dismantling of 26 different drug syndicates.
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Catherine Nevin Catherine Nevin (née Scully, born 1 October 1950) is an Irish woman who was convicted in 2000 of murdering her husband Tom Nevin at Jack White's Inn, a pub owned by the couple in County Wicklow. The jury in her trial also found her guilty on three charges of soliciting others to kill him after five days of deliberation, then the longest period of deliberation in the history of the Irish State. Nevin was the subject of significant coverage by the tabloid press and Justice Mella Carroll ordered a ban on the press commenting on Nevin's appearance or demeanour during the trial. Nevin in 2016 was diagnosed with a brain tumor and given only months to live by doctors at the Mater Hospital
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Derek Bentley case Derek William Bentley (30 June 1933 – 28 January 1953) was an English man who was hanged for the murder of a policeman, which was committed in the course of a burglary attempt. The murder was said at the time to have been committed by a friend and accomplice of Bentley's, Christopher Craig, then aged 16, but whether he had fired the fatal shot was later called into question. Bentley was convicted as a party to murder, by the English law principle of common purpose, "joint enterprise". The jury at the trial found Bentley guilty based on the prosecution's interpretation of the ambiguous phrase "Let him have it" (Bentley's alleged instruction to Craig), after the judge, Lord Chief Justice Goddard, had described Bentley as "mentally aiding the murder of Police Constable Sidney Miles". Goddard then sentenced Bentley to death: at the time, no other sentence was possible.
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David Alexander Mulholland David Alexander Mulholland (1938 – 10 December 2003) was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary, known to the security forces for his alleged involvement in bombing attacks. He was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force's Mid-Ulster Brigade and was a prime suspect in the 1974 Dublin car bombings. He was named as the driver of the first of the three car bombs which exploded minutes apart in the city centre of Dublin on 17 May 1974 and left a total of 26 people dead and almost 300 injured. He was identified from police file photographs by three separate eyewitnesses during the investigation into the bombings by the Garda Síochána. According to journalist Joe Tiernan, he was offered immunity from prosecution by the Gardaí in exchange for information on his accomplices.
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William Kent (Irish politician) Kent and three brothers—Thomas, David and Richard—were involved in a gunfight with the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) at their home, Bawnard, in Castlelyons, County Cork in May 1916, following the Easter Rising, in which Richard was killed, as well as a head constable. Thomas was courtmartialled for the killing and executed, and David was sentenced to death, which was commuted to life imprisonment, but William was acquitted.
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Francis Hughes Francis Hughes (28 February 1956 – 12 May 1981) was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) from Bellaghy, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Hughes was the most wanted man in Northern Ireland until his arrest following a shoot-out with the Special Air Service (SAS) in which an SAS soldier was killed. At his trial, he was sentenced to a total of 83 years' imprisonment; he died during the 1981 Irish hunger strike in HM Prison Maze.
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Kevin Barry Kevin Gerard Barry (20 January 1902 – 1 November 1920) was the first Irish republican to be executed by the British since the leaders of the Easter Rising. Barry was sentenced to death for his part in an Irish Volunteers operation which resulted in the deaths of three British soldiers.
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Birmingham pub bombings The Birmingham pub bombings (also known as the Birmingham bombings) occurred on 21 November 1974, when bombs exploded in two public houses in central Birmingham, England. The explosions killed 21 people and injured 182 others.
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Thomas Kent Thomas Kent (Irish: "Tomás Ceannt" ; 29 August 1865 – 9 May 1916) was an Irish nationalist who was court-martialled and executed following a gunfight with the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) on 2 May 1916, in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Rising.
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John McKeague John Dunlop McKeague (1930 – 29 January 1982) was a prominent Ulster loyalist and one of the founding members of the paramilitary group the Red Hand Commando in 1970. Authors on the Troubles in Northern Ireland have accused McKeague of involvement in the Kincora Boys' Home scandal but he was never convicted. He was shot dead by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in Belfast in January 1982.
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Gareth Peirce Gareth Peirce (born March 1940) is an English solicitor and human rights activist. She is best known for her work and advocacy in high-profile cases involving allegations of human rights injustices. Her work with Gerry Conlon and the Guildford Four – wrongly convicted of bombings carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army – was chronicled in the film "In the Name of the Father" (1993), in which she was portrayed by Emma Thompson.
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1983 Royal Artillery Barracks bombing On 10 December 1983 a bomb exploded at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, South East London. The explosion injured five people and caused minor damage to the building. The bomb exploded in a guard room, leaving a crater 15 ft deep. A Christmas party was underway in the Sergeants' Mess, around 300 yd away, when the bomb exploded. The Scottish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the bombing, stating that "more will follow", although Scotland Yard believed that the IRA were behind the attack. The IRA later admitted responsibility for the attack.