From Inside: the Guildford Four

A documentary based on the Paul Hill Prison Letters which are housed in the Archive of the Irish in Britain was broadcast 4th October at 8pm on BBC Radio 4.

From Inside: the Guildford Four centres on the previously unheard letters home of Paul Hill, written during his fifteen-year wrongful incarceration for the Guildford Pub Bombings.

Paul Hill was one of the Guildford Four, who were subsequently found to have been wrongly convicted of IRA pub bombings in England in 1974. After a lengthy campaign, their convictions were quashed and they were released in 1989.

Martin McNamara presents this collection of passionate, evocative, angry and poignant letters written by Paul Hill to members of his family, especially his mother, sister and uncle.

The Paul Hill Prison Letters are one of the most historically important deposits in the Archive of the Irish in Britain which is housed in the Irish Studies Centre at London Metropolitan University. The Archive is looking to raise funds to digitize the letters and by doing so make them more accessible to researchers.

Director of the Irish Studies Centre, Tony Murray said, ‘Forty years on from Hill’s original conviction, it would be fitting if this vital slice of British-Irish history was made more widely available.’

More information about From Inside: the Guildford Four is available here:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04k4034

Further information about the Archive of the Irish in Britain is available by contacting irishinbritainarchive@londonmet.ac.uk

Or visit the Irish Studies Centre website: https://metranet.londonmet.ac.uk/irishstudiescentre/irishstudiescentre_home.cfm