Gareth Peirce

For my money, one of the truly great people, who cheers your faith in human nature. She’s a lawyer (yes, she, and the surname does look funny but that’s how she spells it) who seems to have been quietly, steadily, fearlessly defending the human rights of people at risk for as long as I can remember. I heard her talk once, and she was quiet, almost paralytically shy. But the’s tough, intelligent and totally rational, ideally equipped to expose the thinking of giovernments who’d like to lock people up with proving them guilty in court. Today she’s defending one of the numerous victims of the war on terror, and reminding us that the way we (governments, courts, newspapers) treat Muslims now is just like the way we treated the Irish thirty years ago.