Issue 031, Saoirse : Irish Freedom (November, 1989)

              25p usa 18 per year uimh 3 1 samhain - november 1 989 issn 0791 - 0002 bulk rate us postage paid hummel dist corp return address saoirse box 1053 south orange n.j 07079 charlie kerins commemoration friday december 1 assemble denny street tralee co kerry at 8pm sharp speaker eamon larkin with the final release from english prisons of three of the guild ford four in the same courtroom they were sentenced in 15 years ago lord denning's appalling vista has arrived before the eyes of the world // includes the beating of conflicting confessions out of prisoners police conspiracy to pervert the course of justice perjured evidence biased judge jury and prosecution as always with the british establish ment a damage limitation exercise has begun to shield their most senior officials who are implicated in the framing of the guildford four in 1974 and the impris oning of the other innocent and non involved irish political hostages the birmingham six the maguire family and judith ward it was lord denning himself now retired but in 1975 as one of the top british judges who said that it was better for innocent men to remain in prison than to open up an appalling vista against british justice he has now admitted he was wrong and withdrawn those remarks he has further called for the case of the birmingham six to be re-examined his about-turn should not be confused how ever with any admission of wrong-doing on the part of the british establishment itself they are already on the counter-attack british home secretary dougls hurd did not utter one word of apology to the guildford four in the british house of commons or elsewhere backbench tory mp dicks speaking on rte radio will not admit their total innocence saying the case was not proven the ultra right-wing and influential sunday telegraph columnist peregrine worsthorne on october 29 last openly stated that 10 innocent men convicted could well be a lesser evil than releasing a guilty one he continued is it really reasonable to expect the police to apply to the irish population in this country the presumption of innocence that they apply to other citizens i don't believe that it is this is the endemic bigotry and racism of the british establishment towards irish people the same establishment that in cludes the master of the rolls lord donaldson who was the guildford four's trial judge in 1975 and sir peter inbert metropolitan police commissioner in london who was head of the bomb squad that interviewed the guildford four in 1974 right to the top solicitor alistair logan has rightly said that the appalling vista goes right to the top of british society he states that the incriminating police documents that forced the freeing of paul hill carole richardson patrick armstrong and gerry conlon would have been avail able for instance to the british dpp who obviously suppressed them the other aspect of these cases is that the underlings are to be made scapegoats of prompting a british police federation spokesman to hit out at the attempts to make his members carry all the guilt for the establishment one retired policeman in the birmingham six case has come for ward to assert that he believes they are innocent and a former prison officer has stated that the men carried injuries when they arrived out of police custody at winson green jail british justice is on the rack at the present from these revelations and it must be further exposed with the release of the lord denning birmingham six and judith ward and the clearing of all their names and those of the maguire family what of guiseppe conlon who died an innocent man in a british jail what about all the incorroborated con fessions beaten out of irish prisoners now imprisoned in the h-blocks maghaberry and portlaoise ? many people are talking about the in quiries exposing british wrongdoing to the highest level republicans will believe it when they see it fhe15 this 12-page edition of saoirse carries four extra pages of reports on sinn fein poblachtach's recent ard-fheis in lucan co dublin see pages 5-8