Retired judges reflect on Irish trials (1)
01 January 1991
Retired judges reflect on Irish trials
artdoc October=1991
In July, Lord Denning, the former Master of the Rolls, wrote to
The Times withdrawing comments he had made earlier regarding the
acquittal of the Winchester Three - Finbar Cullen, Martina
Shanahan and John McCann - in April 1990. During the original
trial in October 1988 the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
(at the time Tom King) held a much-publicised press conference
at which he announced that the government had decided to withdraw
the traditional right to silence in Northern Ireland. He
suggested that this was necessary because terrorists had trained
themselves to resist interrogation and remain silent. Silence,
in other words, could be taken as an admission of guilt. This
press conference was held on the very day that the Winchester
Three had decided to fight their case through legal arguments
rather than take the witness stand. It clearly made a fair trial
impossible. When the three were finally released on appeal,
Denning stated publicly that they were released on a legal
technicality and implied that they were in fact guilty. Denning's
latest letter states, `The Court of Appeal would have ordered a
re-trial but for the law which did not permit it. So all they
could do was quash the convictions and enter a judgement and
verdict of acquittal. This means that the Winchester Three were
not guilty. I would like to take this opportunity of withdrawing
unequivocally any implication to the contrary in my previous
letter.'
Speaking to RTE in Dublin on 3 July, retired Judge Pickles said
that British troops should come out of Ireland immediately
because `they symbolize centuries of oppression by the British
upon the Irish'. He argued for an international peace-keeping
force to replace the British. Pickles again called on Lord Lane
to resign as `the only way the judiciary could apologise' for the
wrong done to Irish people. In the Birmingham Six case, Pickles
said, Lord Lane was concerned `not to have to admit that the
system had got it wrong and that innocent people had been kept
inside for 16 years. He just couldn't face that...'
Irish News 4.7.91 & 22.7.91.
Law Courts Ireland
Statewatch no 4 September/October 1991