Judges, Presidents, and celebrities are among the thousands of people who have indicated their disquiet with the Sallins Case.
Probably the most senior judge to speak out has been Supreme Court judge Adrian Hardiman. He compared Sallins to the Birmingham Six and Guilford cases.
Judge Pat McCartan described the case as the worst Irish miscarriage of justice in his lifetime.
Many other judges refuse to sit on the juryless Special Criminal Court that handed out 33 years jail time for innocent men.
Fianna Fail’s (FF) Justice spokesman (Gerry Collins) demanded an inquiry as part of FF’s election platform only to dump the notion once elected. Young Fine Gael called for the release of Nicky Kelly, one of the Sallins men wrongly convicted. The Labour Party, part of the coalition government that instigated the witch hunt against political activists, supported a Presidential pardon for one the Sallins men.
Ex- President Mary MacAleese has made her opposition to the convictions in the Sallins Case clear. Mary Robinson, ex-President and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights supporting inquiry calls, called the Special Criminal Court (the non- jury Court that convicted the men) a ‘sentencing tribunal.’ Sitting President Michael D Higgins, a strong human rights advocate, cannot speak publicly about the case because of his office, but in the past has strongly supported inquiry into the case.
The list of celebrities supporting inquiry covers all the arts:
Literature (eg Brendan Kennelly, Theo Dorgan, Tim Pat Coogan, Paula Meehan, Chris Mullan, Frank Connolly, Gene Kerrigan, Derek Dunne ..),
Theatre/ movies/ TV (eg Brendan Gleeson, Fionnula Flanagan, Gay Byrne, Mick Lally, Lelia Doolan, Donal O’Kelly, Cyril Cusack, …)
Musicians (eg Christy Moore, Mick Hanley, Tony McMahon, Donal Lunny, Keith Donald, Mick Hanley, …)
Human Rights (eg Amnesty International, Ex UN Assistant General Secretary Dennis Halliday, Kadar Asmal, Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Birminham Six, Guilford Four, ex- hostages Fr. Nial O’Brien and Brian Keenan, Adviser to Irish Council of State, Michael Farrell, the US Berrigan Brothers, ex- US Attorney General Ramsey Clarke, Irish Commission for Justice and Peace…
Legal profession (eg Chair of European (CCBE) Criminal Law Committee, solicitor James MacGuill, Law Professor Kent University Dermot Walsh, UN consultants International Association of Democratic Lawyers, International Commission of Jurists, Brehon Law Society USA, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Christian Association for Abolition of Torture, International Commission of Jurists, Geneva, Association for Legal Justice, Paul O’Dwyer USA …
Irish Congress of Trade Unions… Fr. Donal O’Carroll… Papal Nuncio Archbishop Alibrandi…Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union… Aux Bishop J. Kavanagh, the list goes on.
