Freedom of speech: Gerry Conlon in 2005, with an official letter of apology“Gerry Conlon made friends like hillbillies made moonshine,” writes his friend Richard O’Rawe. “Doctors, playwrights, journalists, postmen and store assistants.” Not to speak of drug dealers, rock stars, and film-makers. “Once they tasted Gerry’s wit and charm, they were hooked.”Johnny Depp was a kindred spirit who met Conlon in 1990, when Gerry was trying to make up for 15 years in prison by trying — as the Pogues’ manager put it — “to live the Sixties, the Seventies and the Eighties”, assisted by copious sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. Depp provides a thoughtful and hilarious foreword. His account of a riotous car journey from Dublin to Dingle via an all-night binge in Limerick, driven by a drunken thalidomide victim with pincers for arms — because on…

Source: The Times December 10, 2017 00:03 UTC