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Gerry Conlon

Gerry Conlon, born in 1955, is a Catholic man living in Belfast. When he leaves school at the age of 14, the civil rights marches are going on. He knows, how it is to be discriminated against and surely this marches seemed to be really exciting for a teenager. So he soon begins demonstrating against the RUC, too. A third point, why Conlon starts joining the other demonstrators, is, that he doesn't know what to do. The job which is announced goes to somebody else, only because Conlon is a Catholic. As a consequence of that, he has do bad paid jobs and begins stealing.
In 1974 Paul Hill, Conlons friend from London, offers him to go there. However Gerry Conlon is dissapointed with life in England and decides on returning home. Yet appearing in Belfast he is arrested. During his time in London a bomb attack in a Guildford pub had been committed. Conlon is thought to be a member of the group having done the attack. Besides his friend Paul Hill had been tortured so long, until he had signed a declaration, which says, that Conlon, Paddy Armstrong, Carole Richardson and he had committed the crime.
In the following days Gerry Conlon is questioned, beaten and tortured by the policemen. First he tells the truth, but the policeman doesn't want to believe him. He thinks him to be one of the `Guildford Four', how the group is called. So he tortures Conlon in order to make him confess to having destroyed the pub. Not until the policeman wants to kill Conlons family, confesses Gerry Conlon having commited the crime, although he is innocent. He signs an agreement, is given a life sentences and is put into prison.
Though some months later the real `Guildford Four' are caught. The group around Gerry Conlon is found innocent, but they still have to stay in prison. Not until 1989 – 15 years after the attack – the British government set them free, because it is pressured by the public opinion.

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