freedom; Celebrating release from years of Communism and injustice

Friday 11 October 1996 23:02 BST
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Berlin Wall (below), 9 November 1989. Seven hours after the first breach in the Wall at Ebererswalder Strasse. Photograph by Brian Harris: 'I had been up all night photographing the excitement at the Brandenburg Gate, then had gone back through Checkpoint Charlie to follow the East Germans through the wall. Confusion reigned. I climbed the back stairs of an apartment block, thinking that, only months ago, this would have been an ideal vantage point to plan an escape to the West'

Release of the Guildford Four at the Old Bailey (right), 18 October 1989. Gerald Conlon with his sisters Bridie Brennan (left) and Ann McKernan. Photograph by Peter MacDiarmid: 'Opposite the Old Bailey, where there is now a City bank, there was a building site full of Irish workers. They all downed tools and cheered'

Prague, before and after the Velvet Revolution: members of the 'Iron Fist' Communist militia (left) celebrate the anniversary of the overthrow of Dubcek, 28 October 1989. Photograph by David Rose: 'The sense of change wasn't as developed as in Germany, but this once- powerful force was beginning to appear uncertain.The year before, they would have been a pillar of rock.' Wenceslas Square (above), days after the fall of the Berlin Wall, November 1989. Photograph by Brian Harris: 'My homage to Josef Koudelka. In '68, in one of the great iconic images of our age, he photographed the square, which was deserted when the government tried to organise a mass rally in support of its regime. This time round, 500,000 showed, and within a week Vaclav Havel was president'

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