Sir, – Eamonn McCann ("Most Irish media failed Gerry Conlon with silence", Opinion & Analysis, June 26th) criticised the response of Irish journalists generally to the scandals of the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six, and quoted Ed Moloney, a previous Northern Editor of The Irish Times, as saying, "If the story had been left to the Irish media to cover, Gerry Conlon would have died in a prison cell."
When challenged about this comment on his blog by the former editor of the Irish News, Nick Garbutt, Mr Moloney later clarified his position, and said that he had only been referring to Dublin-based outlets.
Our files are readily available and confirm that the Irish News consistently campaigned for the release of victims of miscarriages of justice throughout that difficult era and maintained close links with their families.
As a result of this relationship, we were specifically asked by the late Mr Conlon to organise a petition asking the British government to apologise formally to those involved in the Guildford Four/Maguire Seven case. His request, made in 2005 on the 25th anniversary of the death in jail of his father, Giuseppe, reached a successful conclusion through a public statement by the then prime minister, Tony Blair, in Downing Street three weeks later.
Mr McCann cited five respected figures from other news organisations as emerging with credit from the case of Mr Conlon, and wrote, “There may be other Irish journalists who should be mentioned, but names don’t spring to mind.”
As someone who did not work for the Irish News during the imprisonment of the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six, I feel that a number of members of staff from that paper could reasonably have been added to Mr McCann's list. – Yours, etc,
NOEL DORAN,
Editor,
Irish News,
Donegall Street,
Belfast.