Cameron told of promise to Conlon to open Guildford files

British prime minister David Cameron has offered to look into a promise made to Gerry Conlon shortly before he died that he could inspect files held on the IRA bombings in the National Archives in Britain.

The files created in the wake of the 1974 attacks by the IRA on the Horse and Groom and Seven Stars pubs in Guildford in Surrey – which killed four soldiers and one civilian and injured nearly five dozen more – have been put under a 75-year seal.

However, Mr Conlon, who was wrongly imprisoned for the attacks for 15 years, believed that he, his solicitor Gareth Peirce and a number of others, had been given a promise to inspect the files, subject to restrictions, SDLP MP, Mark Durkan told Mr Cameron during House of Commons questions yesterday.

Mr Durkan urged Mr Cameron to honour “the dying wish of an innocent man”.

Mr Durkan also urged the British government to provide better mental health care for those who have been the victims of miscarriages of justice – an issue that has been put into the sidings in Britain because of lack of funding.