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The unluckiest of six unlucky men: a tribute to Hugh Callaghan
One of the Birmingham Six wrongly jailed for IRA pub bombings in 1974, has died aged 93. LOUISE RAW remembers him and his shocking story
Three of the Birmingham Six, the group wrongly convicted for an IRA pub bombing in 1974 and cleared in 1991 by the Court of Appeal.(Left to right) Paddy Hill, Hugh Callaghan and Billy Power
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A WWI hero, renowned ornithologist, medical doctor, trade union organiser and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain all rolled in one. MAT COWARD tells the story of a life so improbable it was once dismissed as fiction
WHEN Hugh Callaghan walked up to the front door of his Birmingham home one night in November 1974, he had no idea that what he called his “quiet, ordinary” life was about to be destroyed.
Before Hugh could turn his key, the door flew open, pushed from the inside. He was dragged in by his lapels and thrown up against the wall by a man he’d never seen before, who pressed a gun to his temple.
Callaghan was being arrested by Special Branch; a long, Kafkaesque nightmare was just beginning.
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A WWI hero, renowned ornithologist, medical doctor, trade union organiser and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain all rolled in one. MAT COWARD tells the story of a life so improbable it was once dismissed as fiction
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