Recognition and Reception
Her role in the defence of the Guildford Four was dramatised in the 1994 film In the Name of the Father, with Peirce portrayed by Emma Thompson. Peirce has reportedly never watched the film and stated in 1995 that she was "an extremely unimportant participant in the story" but was "given a seemingly important status".
She was appointed CBE in 1999 for services to justice, but later wrote to Downing Street asking for it to be withdrawn, accepting responsibility and tendering an apology for any misunderstanding.
Sir Ludovic Kennedy, a campaigner against miscarriages of justice, dedicated a book to Peirce, calling her "the doyenne of British defence lawyers" and that she "refuses to be defeated in any case no matter how unfavourable it looks". Benedict Birnberg, who first employed her as a solicitor, believes she has "transformed the criminal justice scene in this country almost single-handedly".
Michael Gove, a journalist and later a Conservative MP, once described her as being a "passionate, committed and effective supporter of the Trotskyist Socialist Alliance", which he said was committed to destabilising the Establishment. In 2005, Gove told The Sunday Telegraph that as well as serving her clients, she also has an "idealism that is motivated by a political agenda".
Peirce was one of the initial eight people inducted in March 2007 into Justice Denied magazine's Hall of Honor for her lifetime achievement in aiding the wrongly convicted.
Read more about this topic: Gareth Peirce
Famous quotes containing the words recognition and, recognition and/or reception:
“While you are nurturing your newborn, you need someone to nurture you, whether it is with healthful drinks while you’re nursing, or with words of recognition and encouragement as you talk about your feelings. In this state of continual giving to your infant—whether it is nourishment or care or love—you are easily drained, and you need to be replenished from sources outside yourself so that you will have reserves to draw from.”
—Sally Placksin (20th century)
“I waited and worked, and watched the inferior exalted for nearly thirty years; and when recognition came at last, it was too late to alter events, or to make a difference in living.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)
“Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion.... Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)