A SAUCHIE man hopes his historical conviction could some day be quashed after a review has been launched into policing during the Miners’ Strike in the 1980s.

Former Castlehill Colliery worker Jim Tierney was at the picket lines during the turbulent years of 1984-85 when miners took industrial action in an attempt to thwart pit closures.

For some, the events represent a clampdown on the trade union movement, the start of privatisation of government assets, while many will remember the bitter scenes of violence.

However, others like Jim still remember a feeling of injustice, with declassified documents since raising concerns over the government’s involvement.

Just before Christmas in 1983, the closure of Kinneil Colliery in Bo’ness was announced and others felt under threat.

Jim said the “militant” trade unionists around Clackmannanshire, Fife and Stirling “were all out within a day”.

Getting by was extremely difficult for workers during this time. Benefits for strikers had been cut in advance and Jim highlighted how single men received nothing at all.

However, this brought people together, with other trade unions, local shops and the public donating to the miners.

Jim said: “I was lucky. My wife just qualified as a school teacher. The hardship that the others felt was just.

“How they got through that year I have no idea. They gave up everything."

The 62-year-old and local miners would gather in Fishcross at the then Miners' Welfare, their strike centre.

The most violent incident of the great strike was the controversial Battle of Orgreave, where Jim was present.

According to him, it was a lot more peaceful in Scotland, where the first clashes happened at the Ravenscraig steelworks.

Jim said: “Lots and lots of people, including myself, were arrested there.”

He added: “The police would just lift anyone they got their hands on and you were away.”

By the time the strike came to an end, Jim was convicted of a crime with four others and he disputes the evidence given in court all those years ago.

He ended up losing his job as a result, later becoming a teacher and never seeing a courtroom again.

Jim, who featured in documentary Still the Enemy Within, explained that sadly, a number of miners took their own lives in the wake of the strike.

While the workers eventually went back to work, the UK coal industry was virtually wiped out within a decade.

The Scottish Government announced the independent review last week.

It will focus on the impact of policing on communities with justice secretary Michael Matheson saying that “the feelings and scars from that time still run deep and there are questions that still need to be answered”.

Jim added: “Although I don’t think the police were as organised and as wilful as they were in England, we actually had proportionally more people sacked.

“That wasn’t the police’s fault, that was the coal board.

“It would be nice to realise that we were not guilty – the five of us that had been sacked.”