Throughout his career and particularly his tenure as Bishop of Derry , Daly took a keen interest in the criminal justice system , seeking to attend to the needs of prisoners , internees , and victims of miscarriages of justice including the Birmingham Six ( who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings , and whose convictions were quashed in 1991 ) . Along with the Catholic primate of all Ireland , Tomás Ó Fiaich , Daly lobbied the British government in 1977 against its decision to revoke Special Category Status ( political prisoner status ) from IRA prisoners and subsequently their treatment as criminals . When the issue culminated in a hunger strike in 1981 which resulted in the deaths of ten prisoners at HM Prison Maze , he lobbied the European Commission on Human Rights to intervene
Birmingham pub bombings
Birmingham pub bombings
Edward Daly (bishop)