R.I.P. Gerry Conlon: Video of his speech in Dublin, Nov 2013

dublin | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Monday June 23, 2014 21:39

by WISE Up Wales

wiseupforbm at yahoo dot com

Trinity College, 29 Nov, at event for Chelsea Manning

Gerry Conlon's speech in full, filmed by Dave Donnellan at Trinity College Dublin, in solidarity with Chelsea Manning and her family. With introductory song 'Giuseppe Conlon' by Joe Black.

Dave Donnellan writes:

"On the 29 November 2013 an event was held in Trinity College Dublin to mark the visit of the family of Chelsea Manning to Dublin. During the evening Gerard Conlon gave a speech that nobody who was there is ever likely to forget. It was Gerard Conlon at his best: fiery, courageous and compassionate. May he rest in peace."

Gerry Conlon with Chelsea Manning's mum Susan at Trinity College

To watch the video, follow the link to the full article
http://wp.me/p42I6Q-dL.
(couldn't get video embed to work on here)

Gerry speaks with anger and passion about the wrongful arrest, torture and imprisonment of the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven including his father Giuseppe who died in prison, the destruction of Carole Richardson who was unable to cope on her release, the corruption and cover up that took place at the highest levels and

I'll tell you what, I wish there had've been a Julian Assange, an Edward Snowden, a Bradley Manning around when we were in jail to get... the papers the government are holding and refusing to let the public see. [17:30]

Gerry on army recruitment, war, incarceration and people power

I heard about Gerry Conlon's death on my return home last Saturday afternoon after standing in protest at an Armed Forces Day 'celebration' in Wrexham where we'd had a 'peace presence' primarily to combat the targeting of children by military recruiters at an event billed as 'family fun', and where we'd invited people to celebrate Chelsea Manning:

Gerry spoke that evening in November about army recruitment, wars fought on a pretext and the real human cost in terms of dead and damaged soldiers: [from 20:40]

What Bradley Manning did was to expose the horror of what governments expect children, their sons and daughters, to do on their behalf, the pretext of going to war to liberate people... we all need to be aware of what is being done in our name, because it's not my name they're doing it in. I didn't vote for a politician to take me to war or to take my country to war or to send young men and women to war to be blown up and shot, some of them coming back without limbs, some of them coming back so traumatised that they become outside of society... we have to stand up and.. tell them 'You represent us, not big business'... We need them to enrich our life, not destroy our lives. We need people to go into the army as a career, not because there's no jobs.

He went on to talk of all those deprived of their liberty, and what we need to do to get Manning and others out of jail:

You know, at times like this people are sitting in cells across the world - Shaker Aamer in Guantanamo, Bradley Manning in Kansas - and they can't hear our voices, but if we talk about it and debate it and encourage others to become part of it, they will hear our voice and not only will they hear our voice but the politicians will hear our voice. It was people power that got the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six out of jail and it's been people power that's got everybody else out of jail.

Read the full article with links and embedded video:

Gerry addresses the Trinity meeting