Former US Attorney General, Ramsey Clarke, visited Ireland in the 1981. He was a civil rights champion having helped draft the US 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1968 Civil Rights Act, both crucial to the Civil Rights campaign. He ensured federal protection for African-American James Meredith’s 1962 enrolment to the segregated campus of Mississippi University and for the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. He also gave evidence at the infamous 1970 Chicago Seven trial.
Campaigning on the Sallins Case he advocated the release of Nicky Kelly and for a public inquiry. Debating the lack of evidence in the Sallins Train Robbery Case with Justice Minister Michael Noonan, he famously quipped ‘I could drive a train through the case!.’
