By Sally Low
Is it possible for Irish people to get a fair trial before British courts? Amid celebrations of the Birmingham Six's March 14 release, this question is raised — and the facts lead inevitably to the answer that it is not.
Hugh Callaghan, Richard McIlkenny, Paddy Hill, Billy Power, Gerry Hunter and Johnny Walker were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 for the 1974 Birmingham bombings. False police statements, faulty forensic evidence and confessions extracted under torture were used to gain a guilty verdict. Despite overwhelming evidence, two previous appeals had been dismissed.
Gerard Steele, national president of Australian Aid for Ireland, deems their case yet another "discrediting of the British legal system". Last year it was the Guildford Four and the Maguire family who were found to have been wrongfully convicted.
Retired judge Lord Denning was rapped over the knuckles in August when, after the release of the Guildford Four, he regretted the abolition of capital punishment in Britain. If "they had been hanged, they would have been forgotten and the whole community would have been satisfied", he told the Spectator magazine.
Denning in 1980 dismissed a case brought by the Birmingham Six against police who had severely beaten them. Photographs of their injuries had been presented as evidence.
Judges involved in the case have been proven to be incompetent, Steele told Green Left. He asked whether police should "not also be placed on trial for perjury and for the brutal treatment" meted out to the men.
Sean Whelan, editor of the Irish People, commented to Green Left, "One of the most telling points in this case was not the brutal torture of the men, or even their blatant innocence, but the attitude of the appeal judge.
Although the whole world knew the six were innocent, the judge deferred the case from December to March because, he actually stated, he wouldn't let the case spoil his Christmas. That one sentence clearly demonstrated the brutal arrogance of the British establishment and should make people think about the injustices that Ireland has to suffer under British occupation."
The case clearly demonstrates, he said that "British justice" is a contradiction in terms, "at least in relation to Irish people".
Gerard Steele said it seems that the frame-up was part of a campaign by the establishment to "create a guilty verdict for the whole Irish people". Under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 50,000 people every year are stopped, searched or apprehended in a "conveyor belt of oppression".
"We're delighted they've been released", Steele said. "It really is a tribute to the endurance of the prisoners and the strength of ters."
Steele rejected any attempt by Irish Premier Charles Haughey to claim support for the six now they have been cleared. He had been deaf to their families' pleas for help.
Because he used the Australian government's policy that treatment of the Irish is an internal British affair as an excuse not to intervene, foreign minister Gareth Evans also carries responsibility for their suffering, said Steele. "They have made statements in support of South African and Eastern European political prisoners", but never Irish.