The moment Mr Danny McNamee is cleared of Hyde Park bomb in 1982 (38) had been hoping for during the last 11 years finally came in Court No 6 in the Court of Appeal in London yesterday, when three senior judges quashed his conviction for conspiracy to cause explosions in connection with the Hyde Park bombing in London in 1982.
After the key elements of the 36-page ruling were read out and the Crown confirmed it would not be seeking a retrial, Mr McNamee declared: "I am completely vindicated and it's proved I was not guilty even in a really grudging way. I thank my friends for their unqualified support - we have beaten the British judicial system."
The senior judge, Lord Justice Swinton Thomas, said that although the verdict of the original jury was "unsafe", it did not follow that Mr McNamee was "innocent of the charge brought against him or that he has served 11 years' imprisonment for a crime which it has been found that he did not commit".
Mr McNamee, from Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, and members of his family greeted that comment with a sense of resignation last night as they celebrated at a party in the Irish Centre in Camden, north London.
Outside the court, Mr McNamee and his friends and family hugged and kissed each other and his supporters crowded round him to shake his hand. Above the shouts from wellwishers of "well done" and "good luck for the future", Mr McNamee said he was "extremely angry" that the judges had made such a "grudging judgment", but he felt "completely vindicated".
And as the triumphant scenes continued on the steps outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Mr McNamee, who was released from the Maze Prison last month under the terms of the Belfast Agreement, autographed court lists thrust into his hand by wellwishers and confirmed he would be seeking compensation. He also said he wanted get on with his life and hoped he could find work in the legal profession. He studied law while in prison.
"Even when they had to quash the conviction because their case was completely false they do it in such a grudging way as to try and leave doubt. When you're not guilty, but you may well be guilty. They did the same thing with the Guildford Four," he added.
Mr McNamee's brother, Francis, accompanied by another brother, Kevin, and their sister, Renee, said he was "delighted" with the result: "He can get on with the rest of his life now and not be dependent on the Belfast Agreement. He had been released but he was in limbo because he could have been called back at any time."
In their ruling, the judges concluded Mr McNamee's conviction was unsafe because they could not be sure that the original jury would have reached the same conclusion if they had heard the fresh evidence that was presented during his 13-day appeal.
The decision to quash the conviction was based on the failure to disclose the fresh evidence, which amounted to "material irregularity" by the Crown, and the considerable division among fingerprint experts on whether Mr McNamee's prints were on a battery which formed part of a bomb discovered in London.
During his appeal, Mr McNamee did not contest that his fingerprints were found on two IRA arms caches discovered in Britain, but said his association with them was innocent because he was not aware that the engineering company he had worked for in Dundalk, Co Louth, was producing terrorist devices.
Mr McNamee's solicitor, Ms Gareth Peirce, also expressed her disappointment with aspects of the ruling, which she described as "unhelpful" and reflected that comments such as those made by the judges had also "haunted the Birmingham Six and the Guildford defendants and had led to whispering campaigns".
It was "most unfortunate" when judges felt it was appropriate to canvass the ultimate guilt or innocence of a defendant, but she said the judgment itself was a "good restatement" of what was needed for a conviction to be quashed.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, welcomed the decision and praised the "tireless" work of Ms Peirce: "I welcome the fact that Danny McNamee's appeal has been allowed and that the verdict against him has been set aside."
Labour Senator Joe Costello also expressed his delight: "It is a measure of Danny McNamee's character that, even though he was released from prison, he still campaigned to have his good name cleared. The decision today vindicates his struggle to clear his name and proves that he was another victim of a miscarriage of justice."
The Irish Bishops' Commission for Prisoners Overseas said it hoped Mr McNamee's case would be the last miscarriage of justice against an Irish person.