Unbroken: Secrets, Lies and Enduring Love
Author: Mary Attenborough & Michael Gallagher
ISBN-13: 9781785375606
Publisher: Merrion Press
Guideline Price: €18.99
The press release says the lives of Mary Attenborough and Michael Gallagher were “upended” in 1996, but this is an understatement of epic proportions.
At about 4am on October 28th, there was a “deafening thump”, the sound of “steel banging on steel” and a roar of “armed police” as their London flat was raided. Mary struggled to hide her nakedness and prayed they wouldn’t shoot. Michael is hauled away, handcuffed under a shroud and read his rights under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
This riveting account of the fallout from the night is written by the couple themselves and the narrative alternates between their two voices, so we see the raid through Michael’s eyes and then Mary’s.
She asks to see a warrant and is warned to keep her head down before being told the police are “investigating IRA activity relating to your boyfriend”. Michael’s account seems slightly calmer than Mary’s at this point.
Mary is questioned about money and whether Michael is upset that she, a mathematician and software engineer, is the main breadwinner. The fact they’ve just scraped together enough to buy a cottage in Ireland adds to the suspicion.
She is shown the main evidence against her partner, a picture showing him with the keys outside a warehouse where traces of the constituents of Semtex have been discovered.
It is later revealed the flat had been bugged and mentions of the IRA had been recorded. There is also an incident where he avoided surveillance in a seemingly accomplished manner. He is accused of taking part in “mortar attacks on Heathrow Airport in March 1994”.
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The book follows Michael’s path through the British justice system, while Mary on the outside works to prove his innocence. Michael eventually gets bail of £250,000 (€288,559), guaranteed by friends and relatives, but this is revoked when a witness appears to change their statement.
At trial, all the evidence against Michael – the warehouse key, the fibres within, the flat recordings, and even his alleged training – is convincingly countered, before the verdict is delivered.
A revelation that was hard to see coming unless you had some previous familiarity with the case turns the whole chain of events on its head and puts their relationship to the test but you’ll already be convinced that the bond between these two people can survive anything.