Birmingham Six Release - Historic Footage Captures First Moments of Freedom (1991)

On 14 March 1991, ITN's cameras captured the release of the Birmingham Six, the group of Irishmen wrongfully arrested and convicted for the Birmingham pub bombings of November 1974. Patrick Joseph Hill, Richard McIlkenny, Hugh Callaghan, John Walker, Gerard Hunter and William Power were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975, and spent 16 years behind bars before their convitions were overturned. Their release came nearly two years after the release of the Guildford Four, who were imprisoned under similar circumstances following the Guildford pub bomings of October 1974. Paul Hill, one of the Guildford Four, campaigned for the Six's release, and features prominently in ITN's footage of the day.

Awareness of the plight of the Birmingham Six was raised by The Pogues' famous song Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six, written by band members Shane MacGowan and Terry Woods. The song was banned from being played on the radio by the UK's Independent Broadcasting Authority, in line with a directive from the Home Office that forbade the broadcast of any statements deemed sympathetic to the IRA. The ban on the song was not lifted until after the release of the Birmingham Six.

#BirminghamSix #GuildfordFour #Troubles #Ireland #Birmingham6 #IRA #Injustice #Justice #ThePogues

To license the footage featured in this clip, follow the link below:

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/videos/...

To search the ITN Archive collection on Getty Images, follow the link below:

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