🔗 Share this article

Ministers have rejected the idea of initiating a open investigation into the IRA's 1974-era Birmingham city pub explosions.

The Horrific Incident

On 21 November 1974, twenty-one people were killed and two hundred twenty wounded when bombs were set off at the Mulberry Bush pub and Tavern in the Town venues in Birmingham, in an attack largely thought to have been orchestrated by the Irish Republican Army.

Judicial Aftermath

No one has been found guilty for the attacks. Back in 1991, six men had their guilty verdicts overturned after spending more than 16 years in prison in what stands as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in United Kingdom history.

Families Fight for Answers

Families have for decades fought for a open inquiry into the attacks to uncover what the authorities was aware of at the time of the tragedy and why no one has been brought to justice.

Official Decision

The minister for security, Dan Jarvis, announced on recently that while he had sincere sympathy for the relatives, the government had concluded “after careful review” it would not authorize an investigation.

Jarvis said the government thinks the reconciliation commission, set up to look into fatalities related to the Troubles, could look into the Birmingham incidents.

Campaigners React

Activist Julie Hambleton, whose teenage sister Maxine was lost her life in the attacks, commented the decision indicated “the government are indifferent”.

The 62-year-old has for years campaigned for a open inquiry and said she and other grieving relatives had “no intention” of participating in the commission.

“We see no true independence in the panel,” she said, explaining it was “tantamount to them assessing their own homework”.

Calls for Document Release

For years, bereaved families have been demanding the release of files from security services on the incident – particularly on what the government was aware of before and after the incident, and what evidence there is that could lead to legal action.

“The whole UK government system is resisting our families from ever learning the facts,” she said. “Only a official judge-led public probe will provide us access to the files they state they don’t have.”

Official Powers

A statutory public inquiry has distinct official capabilities, including the authority to compel participants to attend and provide information connected to the inquiry.

Previous Inquest

An investigation in 2019 – secured by grieving families – determined the victims were illegally slain by the Provisional IRA but did not determine the identities of those accountable.

Hambleton said: “Intelligence agencies informed the presiding official that they have no files or evidence on what remains England’s longest open atrocity of the 1900s, but at present they aim to force us to participate of this investigative body to share details that they claim has never been available”.

Political Criticism

Liam Byrne, the Member of Parliament for Hodge Hill and Solihull North, described the government’s announcement as “extremely unsatisfactory”.

Through a announcement on Twitter, Byrne wrote: “After so much time, so much suffering, and numerous failures” the families are entitled to a mechanism that is “independent, court-supervised, with complete capabilities and fearless in the pursuit for the truth.”

Continuing Pain

Speaking of the families' persistent grief, Hambleton, who leads the campaign group, said: “No relative of any tragedy of any kind will ever have resolution. It is unattainable. The grief and the sorrow remain.”