While accepting the merits of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, one is realistic enough to see that the failure to obtain judicial justice is a factor in the erosion of ‘nationalist’ confidence in the agreement. All this injustice has been gathered together symbolically into two main cases, as if to say ‘if we don’t get justice here we will never get justice’. Firstly, the 1982 County Armagh killings of unarmed civilians by British forces – justice has been refused in the interest of what has been called ‘national security’. It is not merely that the Irish government, as the weaker partner in the agreement, lost out to the power of the British government. Both governments represent people and the confidence of people in state justice has been badly damaged.
Secondly, the case of the Birmingham men symbolises not only the plight of people jailed for something they did not do but their long imprisonment symbolises also the suffering of prisoners and their families caught up in a cruel war. There is a moral burden on governments not to regard prisoners as ‘hostages’ to peace. It is clear that such a policy exists north and south and in Great Britain but it is not working. Thankfully in the north there are the first stirrings of consideration for prisoners of the ‘Troubles’ jailed for life; there have been some releases and dates given; hopefully more will follow. The Irish government, however, remains intransigent towards its long-term prisoners and has adopted a ‘never, never’ policy of release. The prisoners and their families are doomed. The Irish government should begin releases of some of its long-term prisoners in Portlaoise. Following that it can preach to the British government to release the Birmingham Six and other Irish prisoners who are far too long in British jails.
The Catholic Church has a vast diplomatic network throughout the world. One had hoped in the 1971–72 period of torture of detainees in Northern Ireland that it would have been used to a greater extent to bring pressure from abroad on the British government to stop the use of torture in interrogation methods. Amends can be made by our bishops adopting the case of the Birmingham Six and bringing it before the episcopal conferences of various countries in the world. Is not this also a real concrete case for various commissions for justice and peace? Practice of justice is more important than theory.
I would like to see the greater Irish family outside the island of Ireland taking up the case of the Birmingham Six. American-Irish should make their release a pre-condition for any kind of aid, grant or industrial venture. Such a policy is common in anti-apartheid and anti-colonial movements. The Irish in Britain should drag the Birmingham Six case into the political field and should inform all Conservative and Labour MPs that the favour of the political support of the Irish in Britain begins with the release of the Birmingham Six.
I gave the above talk at a meeting in the Mansion House, Dublin, organised by the Dublin Birmingham Six Committee, Friday evening, 17 February 1989. In 1975 Mgr Denis Faul and I we were alerted to their case by the late Fr Brian Brady and in 1976 visited their relatives in England with him to collect data. In 1976 we published a booklet, The Birmingham Framework, proclaiming their innocence. This was followed by a pamphlet The Birmingham Pub Bombing Case: Synopsis of the Forensic Evidence written with the help of a solicitor, Mr Kieran Morgan.
The Birmingham Six: The Truth Will Set You Free
Jesus was rejected at Nazareth when he proclaimed that he was the fulfilment of the prophecy – ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring the good news to the poor’. They dragged him out of his home town and took him to the top of the hill on which it was built to throw him over the cliff (cf. Luke 4:16–30). On another occasion people who had professed belief in him took up stones to throw at him when he described those who did not obey truth as slaves of sin – ‘If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples; you will know the truth and the truth will set you free’ (cf. John: 8:31–59). These words of Jesus were unacceptable to many. He was sold for thirty pieces of silver, arrested, tortured and sentenced to death on false evidence by a fearful judge who was worried about his position. He was crucified and enclosed in a cell of stone. After three days he was raised by the Spirit of Truth to be the living witness of his own words – ‘The truth will set you free’.
In our own time the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four, and the Maguire Seven were delivered up by police in Judas fashion, condemned unjustly and locked away in tombs. For years only a few small voices cried out in the great wasteland of modern ‘civilisation’. One half of the media was intimidated and the other half bought. Was it Pádraic Pearse used that phrase? The rich and powerful in church and state were silenced by fear.
But truth is never killed. It walks through the middle of the crowd and escapes. It hides itself and leaves the Temple. It springs up and flowers like a seed in a tiny crack of concrete. It shines through a chink in the wall of the cell tomb. Man is a spirit. His word passes from spirit to spirit until it shatters the tombs of stone. The spirit of the Father passed to his dead son Jesus and set him free. Jesus had seen his own life ruined. He began with ideas of hope but on the cross his human heart sensed failure – ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me?’ The Father did not forsake him, did not ignore his witness, his love and forgiveness. Truth dislodged the great stone rolled against the door of his sepulchre. The shining living Jesus emerged triumphant from the darkness.
The Jesus case was closed, or so the Romans and the Sanhedrin thought. But they had not effectively dealt with the witness of Jesus, with his love and forgiveness. That ensured his liberation and victory. Hugh, John, Richard, Billy, Paddy and Gerry, you and your families are disciples of Jesus. The rich and the powerful thought your case was closed and turned away from you and despised you. For a time truth was effectively muzzled and chained. You were abandoned in the interest of the politics of the powerful. But truth in the end set you free. The chink of light shone from under your cell doors. You emerged from your tombs resplendent, the truth shining in your faces.
In times of conflict the weak and the innocent are abused and imprisoned. In the clash of arms justice is denied. In the fever of anger and antagonism judges can become blinded to the truth and do injustice to the innocent. Do oppressed prisoners in their closed world then hear the voice of the universities or the arguments of distinguished lawyers and professors of law pleading for them? They have been blinded too. The leaders of government and commerce fall silent; the well-paid writers supply their wealthy bosses with the stories they want; high-ranking churchmen do not court risk. Still the truth emerges. Jesus said, ‘Whatever is hidden away will be brought out into the open, and whatever is covered up will be found and brought to light’(cf. Luke 8:17). Don’t say it can not happen in the Republic of Ireland. Is the Sallins Robbery case not relevant here? Why was the Barra Ó Briain Report ignored?
These six men have courage. There is no virtue the Irish admire more than courage, physical and moral. I thank God for the courage of the Birmingham men, their wives and children. I admire their statements and the statements of the Guildford Four supporting the liberation of other innocent victims. What a spirit of courage to see men and their families weakened but not broken by years of imprisonment! While these crucified men bend to the task with only the spirit of truth to support them, can the wise of this world be won over to the same task? Can the rich and the powerful be converted, like Simon of Cyrene, to take on the burden of the cross of the poor?
No one is perfect and no legal system is perfect; when people make mistakes they should be prepared to admit their mistakes and apologise to those affected. This is no less so when these people are trial judges, appeal court judges or even the Lord Chief Justice. The raison d’être of the legal system is to provide a service to the community, the service of curtailing certain specified activities which are seen as being harmful. At its basic its purpose is to convict the guilty and to acquit the innocent. If the legal system fails to acquit the innocent, then it fails to provide a service, which is a principal justification for its existence.
In the Birmingham Six case, six innocent men were abused in a police station, were wrongly accused of mass murder, were abused in prison, were wrongly convicted, were vilified by the courts and by the media and had to serve sixteen years of imprisonment before their innocence was accepted and they were released after a long campaign on their behalf.
At the trial, the trial judge, Mr Justice Bridge as he was then, now Lord Justice Bridge, told the six innocent men that they had been convicted on the clearest and most overwhelming evidence he had ever heard.
Later Lord Denning, then Master of the Rolls, refused an appeal by the six men to pursue a claim for damages and told them that if they were successful in their claim it would open an appalling vista of police conspiracy and perjury.
At one of their appeals the Lord Chief Justice Lord Lane told the six innocent men that the longer the appeal went on, the more convinced he became of the correctness of the original verdict.
At the third appeal the six innocent men were finally vindicated and the appeal court judge simply told them they could go.
No apology then from the three court judges; no apology since from Lord Lane, the Lord Chief Justice or from Lord Justice Bridge.
In the Birmingham case when the legal system failed and failed for so long in its most basic function of acquitting the innocent, an apology by Lord Lane, by the appeal court judges and by Lord Justice Bridge to the six innocent men, to their families and to the community which the legal system serves would seem to be appropriate and overdue.
The most severe suffering, as it always is with the innocent, was the organised and deliberate attempt by leading practitioners of the law to wound and smear them by lies and innuendo and by the tremendous energy exerted on damage limitation. The priority was preserving the reputation of the legal system. The image, the false image as it has been shown, was that it could not commit and perpetuate an injustice on the scale of the wrongful conviction in the Birmingham case. It reminds me of similar damage limitation related in St Matthew’s Gospel (cf. 28:12–14) – ‘The chief priests met with the elders and made their plan; they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, “You are to say that his disciples came during the night and stole his body while you were asleep. And if the Governor should hear of this, we will convince him that you are innocent, and that you will have nothing to worry about.”’ The bright shining lie did not outshine the Light of the World. It did not outshine the innocence of the Birmingham Six.
The truth will set us free. But can justice prevail in this life? Love and justice are the foundations of peace, in social life, in community life, in national life. They should be our greatest desire because they are what God requires. We fall short. Jesus realised the difficulty. The real compensation will be paid in heaven – ‘Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil against you because you are my followers. Be happy and glad, for a great reward is kept for you in heaven’(cf. Matthew 5:11–12).
Let us in this Mass express our belief in Jesus. If we follow him, we will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness. Jesus says to those who believe in him, ‘If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’ (cf. John 8:31).
I preached this homily at the Mass of Thanksgiving for the Birmingham Six in the Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, Friday 17 May 1991, 8pm. It appeared in The Furrow, July 1991.
Release of Prisoners, 1995
I ministered in the City of Armagh from 1967 to 1993 and from 1967 to 1986 was chaplain to Armagh Prison until it was shut down in 1986 when the prisoners were transferred to Magaberry Prison. My work by its very nature brought me into contact with prisoners and their families. It broadened to include problems of human rights and indeed meant involvement in the consequences of the web of violence – violence of republicans, loyalists, and the state. Truth, justice and charity are still important in the present transition period of the peace process.
During the twenty-five years of virtual war there were many times when people in Ireland must have asked would the ‘Troubles’ ever come to an end. There was a mountain of suffering and a mountain of prayers for peace. And now peace has come to the north and for that matter to the south and to Britain following the inspirational peace settlements in South Africa and the accords in Palestine and Bosnia. So peace is possible. The joy of the crowds who greeted President Clinton in Derry, Belfast and Dublin was a tribute to his concern, help and the charisma of his personality. But I think it was also a celebration of the people’s own inner happiness, pent up in the past 16 months of peace since the ceasefires and spilling out at President Clinton’s visit, a first great public opportunity.
At a distance it may be difficult for people in Britain to assess the depth and permanence of peace in Ireland, especially as they try to judge it from the public positions taken by governments, political parties and factions. Particular questions such as decommissioning of arms, radical reform of the RUC, release of prisoners, and possible ways of sharing power in government are much in the news. Let me give the sincere and strong opinion of a person who is not only on the ground in the north of Ireland but is in touch with the ‘jungle’ behind the public scene. I believe that peace will be solid, permanent and indeed buoyant. I can say that honestly from my personal contacts with leading republicans in Derry, Belfast, East Tyrone and South Armagh. Beyond the political bickering, marching seasons, and punishment beatings that sometimes characterise Northern Ireland there is a commitment to peace. Do not be deceived by occasional signs of despondency and apparent set-backs. What is a year, what is two years for people to dialogue? The Irish government and the British government will continue to give the peace process appropriate nudges – they have gained a lot of discernment over the years and they will move things prudently. The only criticism voiced is that they should speed up the momentum. The general populace will sustain the peace – after all it is our small communities who have suffered most – over 150 for instance killed in my own little community. Many of the grievances, social and political, that led to the civil rights movement have been solved – the discrimination in housing ended in the 1970s, there are constant efforts to off-set the deprivation of dignity suffered by generations of unemployed, and there is legislation which hopefully will whittle away discrimination in job opportunities and promotion. The general oppression of the culture of Catholics, be they nationalists or republicans, is ending. Furthermore, both Britain and Ireland have been overtaken by the external influences of the new Europe and the end of the Cold War – the single common market is bearing fruit in Ireland as border towns return to natural hinterlands and economic unity is fast becoming a reality – hundreds of thousands of people from the south of Ireland, as far away as Galway and Dublin, are crowding the Belfast shops daily for their Christmas shopping. Armagh is only seven miles from the border and is linked socially, economically and culturally with neighbouring County Monaghan in the Irish Republic. Clones is the central mecca for the big Gaelic football matches of the nine-county Ulster. Local government in Northern Ireland, apart from Belfast which drags behind the rest, has seen a miracle of co-operation of all parties with a conscientious sharing of traditions. You can hear programmes in Gaelic from Radio Ulster; historical societies embracing people of every background have mushroomed – a sign that people have been asking ‘who are we?’ ‘what are we?’ – ‘are our traditions necessarily opposed?’ A lot of soul searching has led to a change of heart and attitudes of many people, and new beautiful friendships have blossomed. Ecumenism too is improving in this general quiet revolution. The physical aspects of the war are disappearing – military vehicles and foot patrols, security barriers, closed border roads, observation posts; the reduction of expenditure on security, just announced, means transference of resources to more fruitful causes.
In this context let me say that the release of prisoners has an amazing effect on the good will of relatives and
friends. That has always been the case but is even truer today. My colleague Fr Denis Faul and I, even at the worst of times, have often called the release of prisoners the key to peace. A softer compassionate line towards prisoners is a healing remedy to both sides of the community in Northern Ireland. Out of the thousands of ex-prisoners very few have reverted to paramilitary activity in the past twenty-five years. In fact I have been amazed to see over the years how ex-prisoners in the border counties of Armagh and Monaghan have slipped quietly back into the community. They have a lot of life to catch up on and many have little time for politics again; they are little seen or heard. At the present time there is absolutely no question of ex-prisoners resuming a paramilitary role. The Irish government has recognised the good effect of the release of prisoners. They have steadily released them over the past year. The Northern Ireland Office has by act of parliament enabled the restoration of 50% remission so that almost a hundred prisoners will be released at Christmas. We hope for a similar softening attitude from British prisons – better conditions for Irish prisoners and releases to their homes in Ireland. That to us is the best rehabilitation. The harsh treatment of a prisoner like Paddy Kelly shocked the Irish members of parliament of all parties from Dublin when they visited here and they expressed their resentment in the media when they returned home. A rigid attitude in Britain jars with the situation at present in Ireland. A quiet even happy atmosphere pervades the prisons north and south – there are now excellent relations between officers and prisoners.
People got involved in the IRA for various reasons at various times. Because of the complication of various contexts and the varied temperaments of persons involved in the IRA one should be careful not to impose a general stock condemnatory judgement on individual republican prisoners. There has always been room for change in the inner attitudes of people. I would have to say also that republican prisoners have been noted for honouring their word – they have always obeyed parole conditions to the letter. Prison officers in Ireland know that if they say they are not going to be involved again in a military way that they mean it. Certainly now the context is one of a revolutionary peace process. Republicans have been building up political power since the hunger strikes of the early 1980s. This political movement of republicans has now definitely taken the upper hand; the energy of militants is being educated and moulded into democratic politics. Witness the acceptance of Irish republicans by Dublin, Washington, the democratic nationalists of the north of Ireland and the cautious Northern Ireland Office. It has gone beyond the formal handshakes. The competence of political leaders like Gerry Adams, Martin Magennis and Mitchel McLaughlin is recognised. Everyone in the United States is familiar with the charismatic figure of Gerry Adams whereas the secretary of state Sir Patrick Mayhew is hardly known. Such a wry remark was made to me by a smiling high-ranking official in the Northern Ireland Office. It would be impossible now for republicans to forfeit their political progress and lose a figure like Adams. A number of happy circumstances have brought about the peace process. Republicans are realistic to know that these will never occur again. I can not imagine that the governments in Dublin and London will allow Irish republicans to be humiliated or isolated. It seems counter-productive to Irish people at home that republicans continue to be held for long long years in prisons in England. Deterrence is not now as important as formerly. In the new peace process context Irish republicans are respected. There will be a place for them in society, in government and even in security as compromises are worked out. It is logical that it should no longer be a black mark in peace time for a prisoner in Britain to hold Irish republican democratic principles. To record a prisoner’s adherence to such principles as an obstacle to release seems outdated. Happy to say that a tolerant official attitude now exists in the prisons in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland.
State Violence Page 14