Episode 224 - The Guildford Four & The Maguire Seven

On the 5th of October 1974, the Provisional Irish Republican Army blew up a military pub in Guildford, killing four soldiers, one civilian and injuring sixty-five others.

The responsibility for the heinous act of terror was quickly thrown at three young Irish men and a seventeen-year-old English girl. On top of this, accusations of running a "bomb factory" was soon being shouldered by a middle-aged Irish woman who'd lived in England for twenty years.

The British justice system had no evidence to prove the Guildford Four or Maguire Seven were connected to any bombings, but a large helping of police brutality and a bit of systemic corruption would soon sort that out.

Sources:
Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA by Richard English

Making Sense of the Troubles: A history of conflict in Northern Ireland by David McKittrick and David McVea

In The Name of the Son: The Gerald Conlan Story by Ricard O’Rawe

https://www.irishpost.com/life-style/infamous-no-irish-no-blacks-no-dogs-signs-may-never-have-existed-148416
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/28/no-reason-to-doubt-no-irish-no-blacks-signs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlmgQDluhk4
https://www.thejournal.ie/paddy-armstrong-documentary-1792119-Nov2014/
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/nov/25/british-injustice-maguire-story-review-family
https://www.thejusticegap.com/guildford-four-how-the-innocent-were-framed-and-the-truth-buried
https://magill.ie/archive/guildford-four-and-one-law-irish
https://everything.explained.today/Gerry_Conlon/
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2019/03/23/special-branch-knew-who-the-real-birmingham-bombers-were-from-1975/
https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/12/opinion/l-sins-of-the-guildford-four-prosecution-447099.html
https://innocenceproject.org/how-the-uk-police-interview-suspects/
https://education.niassembly.gov.uk/post_16/snapshots_of_devolution/gfa
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/gerry-conlon-hadnt-an-ounce-of-republicanism-in-him-says-biographer-and-boyhood-pal-36201704.html
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/blair-apology-to-guilford-four-and-maguire-six-1.1174017
https://group.irishecho.com/2011/02/a-view-north-of-bin-lids-and-head-bangers-in-northern-ireland/
https://stairnaheireann.net/2020/10/19/otd-in-1989-after-serving-15-years-in-prison-the-guildford-four-are-released-in-what-is-considered-to-be-one-of-the-biggest-ever-miscarriages-of-justice-in-britain-3/