Guildford Four. However, amidst all the analysis of the case and its implications for the British system of "justice', one aspect of the case, and that of the Birmingham Six, has been ignored. That is, the role of the media in the background to theit arrest and sentencing.
The mass hysteria and bloodlust against everything Irish which was the backdrop to the original Guildford and Birmingham court cases was whipped up to a very large extent by the press and television. Media coverage of demonstrations calling for a retum of the death penalty and for 'murdering Paddies' to go home was, to say the least, sympathetic.
Ironically though, it will be this self-same baying for blood The triumph ofethe Labour Gay Rights (LCLGR) at