MOVIE ON SALLINS MAIL TRAIN ROBBERY SAGA IN DEVELOPMENT

1976. 25 -year -old journalist Osgur Breatnach’s eighth arrest in eight days. After being set free by the High Court,  he is re-arrested by Heavy Gang member Chief Inspector Ned ‘Bufallo’ Ryan who, like most of the Heavy Gang, goes on to be promoted and retire on  a lucretive state pension.

Scripted by Sallins Case man Osgur Breatnach (75), a movie inspired by his lifelong campaigning for human rights and on the Sallins Case, is in development with Screen Ireland.

The compelling feature film, provisionally titled Out of the Tunnel, is developed from his unpublished book of the same name. It focuses on the life- consequences following his kidnapping and subsequent torture in a tunnel under Dublin’s Bridewell Garda Station.

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‘It’s a story in the tone of Michael Clayton, Syriana, Body of Lies, The Report, The Departed, that will engage an international audience’

Violence/ Drama/ Prison/ Death/ Suicide/ Robbery/ Trauma/ Mental health/ Politics/ Torture/ Conspiracy/ Biographical/ Crime/ Irish/ Legal/ Corruption/ Political/ Action/ Gritty/ Thriller/ Psychological/ Human rights.

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Breatnach’s framing via an official government torture policy implementedv by the Garda Heavy Gang led to his jailing in 1978. His conviction for alleged participation in a mail train robbery near Sallins in 1976 was quashed in 1980 following an international campaign. The campaign for an independent public inquiry as dictated by the UN and the European Convention on Human Rights is ongoing, supported by a wide spectrum of public opinion, including a number of ex-Irish presidents.

Edwina Forkin of Iarlaith Films Ltd t/a Zanzibar Film & Treehouse Media.

Discussions are ongoing with Oscar-winning directors and A-List actors by Iarlaith Films Ltd (t/a Zanzibar films/  headed by award-winning Edwina Forkin (3 wins, 9 nominations). As Executive Producer to Treehouse Media, she recently finished Jimmy, a biopic of Jimmy Stewart. Screen Ireland is among the developers of the Sallins feature, projected to cost in excess of €5M.

THE SALLINS CASE- BRIEF BACKGROUND

Official government policy of widespread torturing prisoners from the 1970s was exposed in the controversial Sallins Case. While the case followed a mail train robbery in Sallins in 1976, the focus shifted dramatically to the arrest of over 40 people and the medically backed evidence of torture by the Garda Heavy Gang.

JAIL TIME

The various controversial juryless trials that followed included the longest criminal court case in Irish legal history and one, controversially, with an officiating sleeping judge. Breatnach was sentenced to 12-years along with Nicky Kelly and nine years for Brian McNally. Breatnach and McNally won their appeal in 1980. Nicky Kelly was granted a Presidential Pardon in 1992 after four years in jail and a 38-day hunger strike.

INDEPENDNET PUBLIC INQUIRY

Meanwhile, Irish Governments continue to refuse an independent public inquiry. This despite demands for the inquiry by the UN Declaration against Torture, the European Convention of Human Rights, international human rights groups Amnesty International, Fair Trials International and every Irish human rights groups (Pat Finucane Centre, Committee for the Administration of Justice, and The Irish Council for Civil Liberties).

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THE LONGEST RUNNING ONGOING CRIMINAL CASE IN IRISH HISTORY

The case is still live after 50 years. Osgur Breatnach’s Miscarriage of Justice Certificate application is due to be heard before the High Court this July 21st and is being monitored by international (and all Irish) human rights groups. The DPP are not opposing the application, accepting Breatnach had no involvement in the robbery and not disputing  his description of his illegal arrest and torture.

Irish ex-Presidents are amongst the wide spectrum of the public concerned over the Sallins Case (list on https:// sallinsinquirynow.ie).

Osgur Breatnach in 2018 and 1976.

BREATNACH BACKGROUND

Breatnach is the author of seven published books and pamphlets. He won a university scholarship (1968) but left UCD to concentrate on community and human rights work, becoming secretary of the all-Ireland Housing Action Groups (1968). He later published eye-witness accounts of the beginning of the war (1969) in the north of Ireland when people around him were killed in Belfast on August 15th, 1969.

In the 1970s he edited a national newspaper The Starry Plough exposing the existence of a government policy of torturing detainees via a 40-strong unit, the Garda Heavy Gang. His kidnapping and torture in a tunnel under Dublin’s Bridewell Garda Station by the Heavy Gang torture unit followed. He has campaigned publicising the controversial Sallins trials, his wrongful incarceration, the successful campaign for the release of co-accused Nicky Kelly and the ongoing international campaign for an independent public inquiry into the treatment of the Sallins Men. He curates sallinsinquirynow.ie.

Breatnach represents TVANDMOVIEFILMS LTD and is developing a number of other films and documentaries with MA Hons screenwriter Dave Kenny.