'Lobbying from Below' by Mick Ryan is published

In 1996 Professor Mick Ryan wrote a book charting the radical roots of INQUEST. Lobbying from Below traces INQUEST’s evolution from a grassroots collective to an established charity.

Mick Ryan was part of INQUEST’s various committees and advisory boards for several decades. In the early 1990s he became chair, initially sharing the position with Sheila Heather-Hayes, mother of Jim, who died in Ashford Remand Centre in 1983.

Mick’s involvement in INQUEST was rooted in his longstanding commitment to radical criminology and through his connection to Radical Alternatives to Prison (RAP). Prior to writing his still widely referenced history of INQUEST’s formative years, Mick wrote The Acceptable Pressure Group (1978), examining RAP and the Howard League. A vital precursor to establishment of INQUEST, RAP’s publishing of The Abolitionist magazine was a fertile ground for the development and exchange of abolitionist thought and action in 1970s and 1980s Britain.

All of this experience and involvement made Mick well placed to write Lobbying from Below: INQUEST in defence of civil liberties, a critical look at INQUEST’s first 15 years of action. The book is a powerful account of INQUEST’s origins and its fierce campaign for change amid the political and social upheaval of the 1980s.

INQUEST was the product of a particular radical moment... born out of the struggle between police and certain communities.

Lobbying from Below recognises the centrality of working with families, Mick wrote:

It is not unusual for INQUEST’s workers to draw strength from clients. Their determination, their energy and warmth – such attributes frequently drive the workers on in what is sometimes an emotionally draining job.

From explaining the inquest process to examining the building of an organisation, Mick documented the importance of shining a light on state violence that was being ignored by mainstream politics:

INQUEST’s key sites of operation are the coroner’s court and, through it, the prison cell, the hospital ward, sites that are of little interest to political scientists and policy analysts … engaged state power elsewhere.

Sadly, Mick Ryan died aged 82, in April 2022, you can read his obituary here.  

Lobbying from Below is still required reading for every new staff member at INQUEST!

Click below to read chapter one and some of Mick's other writing including handwritten letters and 'In the Belly of the New Beast or the Confessions of An Abolitionist' from The Abolitionist (1985).