IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER

The authorities were keen to identify the culprits without delay – the police arrested four suspects, including Gerry Conlon, a young man from Belfast. 

Although the fairness of the trial was called into question, all four of the ‘Guildford Four’ were convicted. Gerry, who was to spend the rest of his life in prison, was joined by his father, who was accused of manufacturing explosives for the IRA. Years later, thanks to the efforts of an English lawyer, when the case was reopened. 

Drawing on real events, Jim Sheridan combines the struggle for justice against a politicised British legal system with the story of conflict and eventual reconciliation between father and son. In doing so, he binds the political to the deeply personal. 

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, made five years before the Good Friday Agreement which formally ended the Northern Ireland conflict, became an international sensation, and Daniel Day-Lewis’s performance one of the most significant of his career. This intense, passionate drama, which stirs up extreme emotions, is both a poignant indictment and a political manifesto.

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Text: dr Karolina Kosińska