The NUI Galway Innocence Clinic this evening hosts an onstage-conversation with Paddy Armstrong, one of four people wrongfully convicted for the 1975 Guildford Bombing.

NUI Galway students who have been investigating wrongful convictions with the NUI Galway Innocence Clinic will also highlight their work at 5.30 pm this evening.

Armstrong collaborated with journalist Mary-Elaine Tynan on Life After Life: A Guildford Four Memoir, which was published two years ago, about Armstrong’s experience being wrongfully convicted.

The NUI Galway Innocence Clinic was launched in September 2018 with the co-operation of the school of law, journalism programme and Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway, under the guidance of Anne Driscoll, a visiting US Fulbright Scholar and award-winning journalist.

Techniques

The students learnt about wrongful convictions, how they happen and why, as well as how to use journalism techniques and skills to investigate them. 

In the second semester, the students have been applying those lessons in an investigation of the Maamtrasna murders case. Myles Joyce, who was wrongfully convicted and hanged in 1882, received the second posthumous presidential pardon in Irish history by President Michael D. Higgins a year ago. 

Students have been looking at the claims of innocence made by four other men who falsely pleaded guilty in the case – Myles’ brothers Martin, Patrick, and Patrick’s son Thomas Joyce, along with John Casey.

Anne Driscoll said “There is an important role for both law and journalism in addressing the injustice of a wrongful conviction and we hope this programme will explore that very idea.”

Life After Life: A Guildford Four Memoir will be available for sale and for signing by Paddy Armstrong and Mary-Elaine Tynan outside the Aras Moyola Large Lecture Theatre this evening. 

Tickets can be booked here.