Memories of the Sixties/Welikade Prison

  Prisoner represents Ceylon at the Fifth Asian Games at Bangkok in 1966 V. P. Gunapala, also known as Piyadasa, was the prisoner who represented Ceylon in Boxing at the 1966 Asian Games.He was sentenced to serve a term of five years imprisonment for his participation in a gang fight & was serving his sentence at the Welikade Prison. He was small made but tough. W. J. (Paddy) de Silva was Superintendent of Welikade Prison from 1961 to 1966 , being the most senior Superintendent in the Prisons Service. He was a former Boxing Champion & he organized a number of recreational & religious activities for the benefit of the prison population. Boxing was one such activity, & an improvised boxing ring was prepared within the prison, with the help of Eddie Gray, President of the Boxing Association & a friend of the Superintendent. No government funds or   property were utilised for the purpose. A former Thomian boxer, R. M. J. Peiris trained the boxers, with ...

The Bandaranaike Assassination - Facts, Speculations about the Convicts & Doubts Introduction   I was among a group of teachers from St. Aloysius College, Galle,  who stood in a queue for over six hours, in sun & rain, to pay our respects to the late Prime Minister, S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, when the remains were lying in state at Horagolla in September, 1959. The mood in the country was one of extreme sadness. Many in the queue around us strongly desired that the perpetrators should receive the maximum punishment. Death Penalty At the time of the assassination the death penalty was suspended on the initiative of PM Bandaranaike himself  (JRJ did the same later) .  A Commission of Inquiry on Capital Punishment was thereafter appointed in 1958 with Australian Professor of Law , Norwal Morris as Chairman & Professor T. Nadarajah & Sir Edwin Wijeyaratne as members. In 1959 just before the assassination, Sessional paper XIV of 1959 was published wher...