Talk:Gareth Peirce

Cleaning up this article

This article appeared as (yet another) toss-off from the Guantanamo Bay crowd.

I suggest we vamp up like we did for the Clive Stafford Smith article. Gareth is an amazing woman and she clearly deserves a better article.

Links and online profiles of Gareth Peirce

She was born Jean Gareth Peirce, but dropped her first name, btw.

Here are some online resources that might help

• [1] speech on Samar and Jawad
• Portrayed by Emma Thomson in In the Name of the Father
• Telegraph article -- also awarded a CBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1999 for "services to justice" and educated at Cheltenham Ladies College and Oxford University.
• BBC Profile of Peirce
• LEX profile of radical lawyers

• The following are links to her firm, Birnberg, Peirce & Partners
  • Press Statement by Birnberg Peirce (November 8, 2005)
  • Firm Profile and Chambers Ranking

Gareth Peirce appears to be somewhat concerned not to let personal information about her appear and rarely co-operates with press profiles, making it more difficult to get information. However it is possible to find more when I can get to my library. Firstly her Oxford education must have been at one of five colleges (Lady Margaret Hall, Somerville, St. Hugh's, St. Hilda's or St. Anne's) as they were the only ones who admitted women undergraduates at the time. The Oxford list of members will identify which, and give us a clue as to birthdate as people normally go up to Oxford at the age of 18. Her life of 'interesting cases' is also well documented in newspapers and there are references in books about the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six, etc. She also supported striking miners in 1984-85. David | Talk 23:12, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks Dbiv! According to the Telegraph, Cheltenham Ladies College and Oxford University;

Also, she spent time in the US in the 1960s working as a journalist covering the civil rights movement-Martin Luther King. The BBC profile says, Returning to the UK (in the 1970's) she took a postgraduate course at the London School of Economics before being recruited as a solicitor by the radical law firm run by Benedict Birnberg. She lives lives in an end-of-terrace Victorian cottage in a leafy cul-de-sac in Kentish Town

From The Guardian

Lives Kentish Town, north London, with American husband, Bill. They have two adult sons

Education Cheltenham Ladies' College; Oxford University; postgraduate course at London School of Economics

Career Worked as a journalist in the US in the 1960s, covering Martin Luther King's civil rights campaigns

In 1974 was recruited as a trainee solicitor by the radical law firm run by Benedict Birnberg. Now a senior partner at the firm, Birnberg Peirce & Partners

Clients -- besides the Gurantanamo folks, there's former MI5 operative, David Shayler, Irish folks - the Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six, Judith Ward, Frank Johnson.

Thank yoU! Joaquin Murietta 00:15, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

It's coming along!

Thanks, DBIV, it is starting to shape up. Joaquin Murietta 00:16, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

"Born Jean Gareth Peirce"

...and "married Bill Peirce". A weird coincidence, or is one of these a mistake?

Vandalism

Reverted it to the old version that wasnt vandalised, I think it worked properly.

"People who declined a British honour"

<Personal attack on Pierce removed per WP:BLP - had nothing to do with improving the article. Sorry it took so long (5 years)! SmartSE (talk) 08:32, 7 July 2011 (UTC) >

• At last some truth rather than myth. Well done. -- 195.92.40.49 20:28, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

---

Spiteful, nasty words, from people who presumably do not wish the rule of law to be fairly applied.

One cannot "return an honour", one only ceases to be a member of the order, once appointed, if the Sovereign expels the appointee from the order. She may have returned the insignia, but she remains a CBE. It is just an empty gesture, like the one made by John Lennon. He remained a MBE until the day he died. 650 Norton (1951) (talk) 17:14, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Nonetheless, speaking apolitically myself, Peirce let Downing Street know almost immediately after it made the news that she did not wish to receive or be invested as CBE, and accepted responsibility for any misunderstanding. Downing Street honoured her wish. It is inaccurate and demeaning to those who earned and wanted their CBEs to describe her as CBE. Hence my edit today. As far as John Lennon remaining an MBE, I don't know, Perhaps that is a different scenario as he received it and was invested before later -- out of pique -- renouncing it. Rms125a@hotmail.com (talk) 20:01, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

I think she's still officially Gareth Peirce CBE. Where's the source for Downing Street "honouring her wish"? The only reference to 'Gareth Peirce' in the London Gazette is the award of the CBE. And if they did revoke it, that would be a fairly significant event. Indeed she would be the only person as far as I know to have successfully had her 'mistake' (and on that ground alone) gazetted as nullifying the award. --Stevouk (talk) 15:18, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Peirce stated today on BBC R4 (A Law Unto Themselves) that she immediately wrote refusing the honour but that this was ignored/lost? She then wrote again confirming her refusal. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04cbnn6 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04cbnn6 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dadyeah (talk • contribs) 11:39, 5 August 2014 (UTC)

Mis-leading lead

The lead paragraph included the line:

"She is known for her work in high-profile cases representing people with Irish and Muslim backgrounds accused of terrorism."

The cited source, however, actually say:

"Respected for the way she represents alleged terrorists, initially Irish and now Islamist..."

Firstly, there is a difference between "Muslim" and "Islamist." Secondly, the lead text suggests her work is solely/predominantly in the field of alleged terrorism, even though the main text details three cases that are not terrorism-related, four that are, but in one the individual did not have a Irish "background." I have therefore amended the text. Nick Cooper (talk) 10:24, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Date of birth of Bill Peirce

If you look at the link to his birth date, you will see that it says 1930, not 1928. Hayford Peirce (talk) 03:46, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Gareth Peirce legal name

According to this website, her legal name is Jean Gareth Peirce. Comments? Quis separabit? 23:40, 31 October 2016 (UTC)

According to Twenty Famous Lawyers (John Hostettler, 2013, page 171) she changed her name from "Jean Margaret" to "Gareth". Her law firm, Birnberg Peirce & Partners, gives her name as "Gareth Peirce". The Guardian's "Top 100 Women" names her "Gareth Peirce". She writes for the Guardian under the name "Gareth Peirce". When she was awarded her CBE in 1998 "for services to Justice", it was in the name "Gareth, Mrs. PIERCE". Every article about her work since at least 1975 names her as "Gareth Peirce". In her law firm's letters to The Times since 1975 she has signed herself "Gareth Peirce". Wikipedia doesn't deadname people in BLPs (see for example Jack Monroe); the website you link is not an authority on names in general or Peirce's in particular; the article already states that her forenames at birth were "Jean Margaret", and also states that she has changed her name since birth. Given the more than 40 years' worth of references to her using only the name "Gareth Peirce", there is no reason to alter the article. Keri (talk) 10:23, 1 November 2016 (UTC)

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Private person

We say "Peirce has been described as a very private person who shuns the limelight and refuses media interviews." This certainly is how the cited sources describe her but it is also misleading. We do actually mention interviews with her & she is featured prominently in a documentary film about Gerry Conlon, titled "In The Name of Gerry Conlon" and available to stream on Freevee. - Sitush (talk) 21:10, 8 June 2024 (UTC)