The apology from the British Prime Minister to the Conlons and Maguires for their wrongful convictions in the 1970s was clearly a great comfort to the two families. It is therefore to be welcomed. Mr Tony Blair's gesture is a reminder of a dark time in recent British and Irish history and of a fraught period in Anglo-Irish relations.
The IRA bombing campaign in Britain, targeting young people in public houses as it did, was abhorred by the vast majority of Irish people. Yet suspicion fell on all members of the Irish community in Britain and on Irish visitors to the UK. The convictions of the Guildford Four, the Maguire Seven, the Birmingham Six and others gave rise to a deep distrust within Ireland of the British legal system and strained relations between the two governments.
The quashing of the convictions went a long way towards healing this. And the later IRA ceasefire, and the events that followed, mean - fortunately - that there is a generation growing up today which does not know how a fear of violence, and consequent miscarriages of justice, can generate mutual fear and suspicion among communities.
However, all this happened within the living memory of today's politicians. Mr Blair's apology, and the resultant recollection of these events, are a timely reminder of how easy it is for a police force and legal system - motivated by a need to be seen to respond to popular outrage - to cast a wide net and draw in the wrong people. These events also remind us that, even in the 1970s, there were people urging caution, stressing the importance of due process and the need to protect the rights of people held in custody.
These issues have not gone away. If anything, they have become more pressing. The British government is dealing today with a perceived threat from Islamic fundamentalists. As a result, a number of people are detained in Belmarsh Prison - ironically the same prison in which many Irish suspects were held. In a further parallel with history, some of these are represented by the very same solicitors who acted for the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six. But today's prisoners are being held without trial, in a practice recently condemned by the British courts as conflicting with Britain's human rights obligations.
The atmosphere of fear in Britain over the possibility of terrorist attack is very similar to that which prevailed at the time of the wrongful convictions of the Guildford Four and the Maguire family. It is an atmosphere in which the upholding of people's rights under domestic and international law can be presented as an unaffordable luxury.
But this can end not only in wrongful detention and miscarriages of justice, but in the demonisation and alienation of whole communities. Mr Blair's apology offers an opportunity for all concerned to reflect on the dangers of allowing fear and suspicion to override an honourable tradition of fairness and respect for human rights.