Who will ever forget the TV images of a wild-eyed, fist-pumping man, storming up to a bank of microphones outside The Old Bailey, proclaiming to the world, “I am a totally innocent man!”
The story of what happened next and what kind of man that emerged from 14 years of soul-destroying imprisonment is simply the stuff of legend. In the Name of the Son charts Conlon’s remarkable journey into ‘freed
om’ as he received and spent over £1million pounds, became a cause-celebre at the Hollywood Oscars and ran in the same circles as Johnny Depp, Shane McGowan and Daniel Day Lewis. Conlon seemed to have it all but away from the glamour, fuelled by an addiction to crack-cocaine, his life was spiralling out of control. Plagued with the guilt of believing he was responsible for the death of his father, Guiseppe, in prison, Gerry Conlon struggled with powerful self-loathing. When he found himself searching bins in the backstreets of London for food, he knew he had to do something. What emerges from the darkness is Conlon’s resilience and his eventual life-changing recovery to beat his demons and become a world-renowned human rights campaigner against miscarriages of justice, similar to his own. Written by Gerry’s lifelong friend Richard O’Rawe and Martin Lynch, the play explores the triumph of the human spirit over extreme adversity. A great story of hope.
