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HUGH CALLAGHAN, ONE of the six men wrongly jailed for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, has sung at his own funeral, a priest has said.
Callaghan, alongside Paddy Hill, Gerry Hunter, John Walker, Richard McIlkenny and Billy Power, was wrongly convicted of murdering 21 people when two explosions ripped apart the Tavern in the Town and Mulberry Bush pubs in Birmingham in 1974.
The group were convicted in 1975 and jailed for life.
They were freed after more than 16 years, when the Court of Appeal in 1991 ruled their convictions were unsafe.
About 200 people attended Callaghan’s funeral today at The Immaculate Heart of Mary and St Dominic church in Homerton, east London, where he was “a much-loved member of the congregation”, parish priest the Rev Patrick Allsop said.
Father Allsop said he was a major figure in the community partly because he had a magnificent voice.
“He could sing unaccompanied with complete accuracy.
“The most extraordinary thing is that he did a studio recording of his party piece, which is the great Irish song Danny Boy and that was played as he was carried out of the church.
“I think it’s the first time the deceased has sung himself out of a funeral mass.”
Callaghan also serenaded the ward in hospital shortly before he died, where he was being treated for a chest infection.
Callaghan, who was 93, recovered from the chest infection but died from a heart attack on 27 May, Father Allsop said.
He moved to London in 1991 after he was released from prison and began to attend the east London church.
Irish musicians performed during the funeral and the London Irish Choir attended the service, Father Allsop added.
Father Allsop said: “After he had been released after 16 years in prison, he was sort of unsettled as to where he would feel happy and comfortable.
“But he eventually decided that the Irish community in London were the people he wanted to be with.”
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Was there once. Didn’t like it much though, the atmosphere wasn’t great.
@Kevin O’Brien: maybe it’s the lockdown talking but you should win a prize. Not a Mars bar
@Barry Dempsey: I think lockdown is getting to us all, but I’d glady take a prize.
@Kevin O’Brien: congratulations Cadburys Ireland are delighted to announce you have won a year supply of star bars.
@Paul Gorry: Very apt lol.
10/10. My proudest moment today.
@Conor Farrell: slow day?
@Conor Farrell: 9/10 well done
@Paul Jude Redmond: give him his win ya sarcastic F
@Conor Farrell: Me too, I did it in the morning and it’s going to be all downhill from here…
Nevermind Mars…….the last year on earth feels like it was 687 earth days long! 2021 is shaping up to be more like Uranus
@Barry Evans: there’s a ring around Uranus
@Aonghus OReilly: Klingons spotted yet?
@Tommie:
They’re on the starboard bow
Gave it a shot. I know absolutely nothing about it.
@Paul Gorry: did you give it a better shot than Liverpools title defence wha’…
Happy out with 8/10
@Robert Clifford:Me too!
9/10. I don’t eat chocolate (blasphemous, I know) so I didn’t have a clue about the last one.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: You don’t know it because you don’t know it, not because you do or don’t eat chocolate.
@Steve Smith: Yes, eating chocolate bars doesn’t make you know who invented them. But I didn’t always understand this, I remember telling my parents I didn’t understand why the kid who lived right next to the school wasn’t a genius, like information should leak out of the school and into his brain.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: Also. I’m sure god (*who doest exist) will be OK with you not eating chocolate too.
0/10
@Tony O Neill: No fault.
I’m a martian
8/10, looking forward to seeing what new discoveries are made up there!
Robin Williams was from Mars
@Michael Maher: nanu nanu.
@Michael Maher: Ork. Mork from Ork.
9/10
8/10 very happy with that, a few guesses. Unfortunately my wife the science and space expert got 10 and the bragging rights. I’m a fool for thinking I could beat her
Only that David Bowie once wondered aloud if there was life on …
I’m a Spacer
Girls are from Jupiter coz they are stu pider
8-10 , thought was ok till the nephew got 10-10 …
The Martian on audible is amazing if anyone is interested!!!
The last question shouldn’t have been asked as nothing to do with the planet Mars!
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