Michael Mansfield QC Delivers The First Gerry Conlon Memorial Lecture.
On 23 January 2015 Michael Mansfield QC, to a packed house at St Mary's College on the Lower Falls Road Belfast, gave the first Gerry Conlon Memorial lecture.
The lecture titled "Democratic Bankruptcy" had been arranged and organised as the first annual event in the memory of Jerry Conlon, one of the famous Guildford Four. The lecture hall at Saint Mary's College had also been chosen specially as it was only metres from where Gerry had grown up.
After coping with returning to civilian life after being wrongfully imprisoned for 15 years, Gerry began his fight for justice and standing up for others who have been wrongfully targeted by the state. Sadly, Jerry lost his own fight against lung cancer last year and died.
"You’re doing this for future generations. The next generation of politicians know this – you’re setting a democratic precedent with these inquiries. And if they won’t do it, set up people’s tribunals."
Michael Mansfield QC
During during his lecture Michael detailed the dramatic effect that Gerry and his colleagues had achieved with their successful fights for justice. Importantly Michael highlighted the effect but Gerry and his colleagues had had other cases he stated that the marginalised "...took a mental sustenance from what gone before". He identified the Marchioness disaster saying that where "50 people died because of corporate greed", that the enviable resolve all those families not just accepting the original reasons given, forced an enquiry that had helped everyone through changes to safety standards. Likewise, the steadfast determination the Lawrence family which finally led to the convictions of two people for the murder of their son Stephen.
As his last example Michael highlighted the historic verdict from the Saville Enquiry over Bloody Sunday, where it was found that British paratroopers had fired first, had shot fleeing civilians and then covered up their actions by lying.
You can read more about the first Gerry Conlon Memorial Lecture by clicking here.
Note. Photograph of Michael Mansfield QC taken by Brian O’Neill. Further pictures of the lecture can be found on Flickr by clicking here.