Máire O'Shea is Innocent

From the collection of

MACE is the strategic lead organisation for screen heritage for the East and West Midlands regions. An independent charity based at University of Lincoln, MACE preserves and makes accessible a collection of more than 100,000 historic moving images representative of the diverse cultures and histories of communities throughout the heart of England from the Lincolnshire coast to the Welsh border.

Máire O'Shea is Innocent

Media Archive for Central England
Birmingham
1985
Sound

The Máire O'Shea support committee send a message to the British Government.

A campaign video on a complex legal issue, made with the assistance of the Trade Union Resource Centre in Birmingham. In January 1985, 65-year-old Dr Máire O'Shea, who worked as a consultant psychiatrist at the John Connolly Hospital in Birmingham, was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Her supporters and Dr O'Shea herself talk about what the arrest has meant and the wider issue of what they see as an attack on Irish identity, language and history. They also refer to the allegation that the Act was being used to target people who were legitimately opposed to the British Army's presence in Northern Ireland. This video was made prior to her trial, at which she was acquitted of all charges.

The exact charges are not mentioned in the video, but they relate to the bombing of the home of retired SAS lieutenant colonel Brian Baty at King's Pyon in Herefordshire. Dr O'Shea faced a trial in February 1986 and was fully acquitted. She later campaigned for the release of the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six. She died in 1995.

People Power: Voices of Protest and Dissent in the Midlands

Getting the message heard, from the placard and megaphone to the campaign video.

These films celebrate the right to protest, with a look at how the campaigners of the 1980s reacted when they were met head on with a radical government sustained by strong electoral majorities. This collection also showcases campaigns that embraced the new medium of video, taking their battles to the next level with tapes of their own, free from television's editorial controls. The material in this collection comes from two sources: television and an independent video production company. On television we find a more genteel approach to activism, where studio discussions take centre stage. Away from television we look to the work of the Trade Union Resource Centre in Birmingham, which helped groups to get their messages across in their own way. So join us as we look back at life in the 1980s, in some ways a depressingly familiar place - with families struggling to survive on meagre incomes, the NHS in crisis, and the most vulnerable in society unprotected.

8 videos in this collection

The Labour Party and LGBT Rights

Coventry
1986-12-04