Birmingham Six's McIlkenny dies
Richard McIlkenny, one of the Birmingham Six wrongly imprisoned for the bombings which killed 21 people, died in hospital today.
Mr McIlkenny, 73, had been battling cancer for some time and died at the James Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, Dublin, said a spokeswoman for the Health Service Executive.
His family were at his bedside.
Originally from Belfast, Mr McIlkenny joined the Irish Army in 1952, serving four years before emigrating to England.
He was a factory worker in towns in the North of England and was living in Birmingham when he was detained along with friends by Special Branch detectives on November 21, 1974 after two pubs in the city were bombed.
He was interrogated and beaten by police for three days until he signed a false confession admitting to bombing the pubs in which 21 people died and 162 were injured.
On November 24, 1974, Mr McIlkenny appeared in court along with Patrick Hill, Gerry Hunter, Hugh Callaghan, Billy Power and Johnny Walker, and was remanded into custody.
Whilst in prison, all six men were beaten, and in August 1975 the Birmingham Six were sentenced to life in prison on the basis of their false confessions.
They were denied leave to appeal and forced to wait until 1987, when, in the light of new evidence, their case was referred to the Court of Appeal before being rejected.
Mass public protests in Ireland and in England kept their case alive until August 1990, when forensic investigations showed their confessions had been tampered with.
The following year, in March 1991, their convictions were quashed, and they were released after 16 years in jail.
