Our justice system is still haunted by a series of miscarriage of justice scandals which have their origins in the IRA’s bombing campaign of the 1970s: notably, the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four.
A recent BBC documentary, A Great British Injustice: The Maguire Story, recounts the story of the so-called Maguire Seven, more innocents swept up in the hysteria following the Guildford pub bombings in 1974 (pictured): ‘This is the story of what British justice has done to an entire family,’ began the presenter Stephen Nolan. ‘And at the heart of this story is what it has done to a 13-year-old-child who, to this very day, is destroyed as a result of it.’
That teenager was Patrick Maguire, now an artist, who was wrongfully imprisoned for five years. He was arrested with his parents, Anne and Patrick Sr, 17-year-old brother Vincent, his uncles Giuseppe Conlon and Sean Smyth and a family friend Patrick O’Neill. Giuseppe’s son, and Patrick Maguire’s cousin, Gerry Conlon, had been wrongly accused
