The Birmingham Six: An Appalling Vista. An International Anthology of Support by 55 Writers and Artists. Edited by Oscar Gilligan. Dublin: Literéire Publishers, December 1990. Cloth boards, in pictorial dust jacket by Louis Le Brocquy. A fine bright copy. Housed in custom-made slipcase. [Brandes & Durkan B101b.]

The special limited edition, thread sewn, hand bound in cloth, gold blocked. Limited to 100 Numbered Copies, Signed by seven of the contributors: Louis Le Brocquy, Seamus Deane, Paul Durcan, Patrick Galvin, Seamus Heaney, Thomas Kinsella and Francis Stuart.

Dust jacket illustration featuring Louis le Brocquy’s  “Condemned Man,” from a work painted in 1945. With seven drawings in the text, five by Gertrude Degehardt and two by Volker Wilczek.

‘These men have served a dreadful sentence. The protests have come in thick and fast in the last few years and still, in November 1990, they lie in jail. When a range of writers and artists, journalists and intellectuals, individuals and organizations, as diverse as that represented here, can agree to speak with one voice against the conviction and imprisonment of the Birmingham Six, that in itself is a tribute to the strength of their case.’ Seamus Deane.

The Birmingham Six were Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Joseph Hill, Gerard Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 for the Birmingham pub bombings. Their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory and quashed by the Court of Appeal on 14 March 1991.