Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I concur with the comments made by Senators Quinn and Glynn in regard to road safety, which arises regularly.

Will the Leader consider the extreme but useful practice employed by the Knesset in Israel whereby at the beginning of business each day the names of those killed in road accidents are read out in memoriam by the speaker? It is an acknowledgement of sorts which focuses people's minds on the reality.

I support the comments made on both sides of the House in regard to the acknowledgement by the British Government of the apology to Mrs. Annie Maguire and Giuseppe Conlon. To take up Senator Ó Murchú's theme, this is a momentous event when one considers the fraught relations between this country and Britain over many hundreds of years. It follows the apology relating to the Famine from Tony Blair some years ago and is made by a Government rather than an individual.

A number of courageous people have not been mentioned and should be referred to. Mr. Chris Mullin is the crusading journalist who wrote the book on the Guildford Four case which opened this debate. He later went on to become an MP and a Minister in the Blair Government. Mr. Alistair Logan is the solicitor who represented those involved in the Guildford Four case and travelled repeatedly to this country to attend and speak at public meetings. He is now forgotten in a sense because events have moved on. I also refer to the crusading QC, Michael Mansfield, who represented many Irish people when it was not popular to do so.

I had only been a Member of this House for a number of months when I and a number of other parliamentarians attended the Birmingham Six appeal hearing in the Old Bailey, which was presided over by Lord Lane, the then British Chief Justice. It was a very chilling experience to hear that appeal being turned down. Ironically, one of the three sitting judges — there was no jury — was a Mr. Justice O'Connor whose Irish name obviously had no influence on the outrageous conclusion reached at that time. I acknowledge those people — all of whom are English — and it is a tremendous tribute to them that they made their case against the mood of the day.

I lived in England at the time Mrs. Maguire and her family were arrested. The headline in the London Evening Standard following their arrest was "Aunt Annie's Bomb Factory". When they were arrested, one of the police constables could not understand why the children had English accents given that they were Irish. The answer was that they had been born and reared in England. Ironically, Mrs. Maguire was a paid-up and active member of the Conservative Party. We should remember these things at this time. This is a momentous day and at least Giuseppe Conlon can now rest in peace.