On the 5th October 1974 a subgroup of the IRA blew up two pubs in a town called Guildford, Surrey in England. The two bombs were each 6 pounds of gelignite and between them killed five people and injured sixty-five. The vast majority of the injuries and all the deaths happened when the first bomb went off in the Horse and Groom at 8.30pm. The second pub, The Seven Stars had largely been evacuated before the bomb went off and therefore more carnage was avoided.

There was another bombing, this time with the inclusion of shrapnel and therefore more destructive, on the 7th November. The device was thrown into The Kings Arms, in Woolich on the 7th November 1974. As a result two more people died.

In December 1974, under huge pressure to solve the case, the police arrested three men and one woman. Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill, Partrick Armstrong and Carole Richardson. These were to be know as the Guildford Four. A few days after their arrest a further seven, related people, including Conlon’s father, were arrested. These were dubbed the Maguire Seven.

The Guildford Four were subjected to torture to extract confessions which as a result were successfully used to get convictions. Consequently they were all sentenced to life in prison, on the 5th October 1975. The Maguire Seven were treated just as badly. They were convicted of providing bomb making material and other support for the bombers. They were sentenced to varying terms between four and fourteen years, on the 4th March 1976.

Several attempts to appeal were denied.

In 1989 detectives from another constabulary examined the case. They discovered significant pieces of evidence in relation to the Surrey Police’s handling of the Guildford Four.

The Guildford Four were released on the 19th October 1989, having spent 14 years in prison for a crime they did not commit.

The convictions of the Maguire Seven were quashed in 1991. Conlon’s father had passed away three years into his sentence and the other six had all served their sentences.

The story of The Guildford Four has been featured in the movie In the Name of the Father.