Conlon haunted by ordeal after release from prison

Freed after spending 14 years behind bars after he was wrongly convicted of the 1974 IRA Guildford pub bombing, the ordeal never left Gerry Conlon.

In 2009, he wrote about the personal and emotional battles he suffered as a result of his incarceration and fight for freedom.

He suffered two breakdowns, attempted suicide, and became addicted to drugs and alcohol following his release. He also began enduring nightmares only after securing freedom. “The ordeal has never left me,” he said.

After a long illness, Mr Conlon died on Saturday aged 60. He and the rest of the Guildford Four served 14 years of a life sentence for the attack which killed five people and injured 65 before their convictions were overturned in 1989.

He was played by Daniel Day-Lewis in the film In The Name Of The Father.

Mr Conlon’s family issued a statement through his lawyer Gareth Peirce.

“We lost our Gerry. He brought life, love, intelligence, wit and strength to our family through its darkest hours,” they 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.”

Mr Conlon died in his home in the Falls Road area of Belfast. His father Giuseppe, jailed as part of a discredited investigation into a supposed bomb-making family the Maguire Seven, died after five years in jail.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said: “Gerry and his father Giuseppe were two of the most infamous examples of miscarriages of justice by the British political and judicial system. To his family and friends I want to extend my sincere condolences.”