🔗 Share this article

Ministers have ruled out initiating a national inquiry into the Provisional IRA's 1974-era Birmingham bar explosions.

This Tragic Event

On 21 November 1974, twenty-one civilians were lost their lives and two hundred twenty hurt when bombs were detonated at the Mulberry Bush pub and Tavern in the Town venues in Birmingham, in an attack commonly accepted to have been orchestrated by the IRA.

Judicial Fallout

Nobody has been convicted over the bombings. In 1991, 6 men had their convictions quashed after spending over 16 years in prison in what stands as one of the worst miscarriages of the legal system in British history.

Victims' Families Campaign for Answers

Loved ones have for years pushed for a public probe into the bombings to uncover what the state was aware of at the time of the tragedy and why nobody has been held accountable.

Government Decision

The security minister, Dan Jarvis, said on Thursday that while he had sincere sympathy for the loved ones, the administration had concluded “after careful review” it would not authorize an inquiry.

Jarvis said the government thinks the newly established commission, set up to look into fatalities related to the Northern Ireland conflict, could examine the Birmingham incidents.

Campaigners Express Disappointment

Activist Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine was lost her life in the attacks, commented the announcement demonstrated “the government are indifferent”.

The 62-year-old has long pushed for a open probe and explained she and other bereaved families had “no intention” of participating in the new body.

“There is no genuine autonomy in the commission,” she said, noting it was “equivalent to them assessing their own performance”.

Requests for Evidence Disclosure

Over the years, bereaved loved ones have been calling for the disclosure of papers from intelligence agencies on the attack – particularly on what the authorities knew before and after the attack, and what evidence there is that could result in prosecutions.

“The entire state apparatus is against our relatives from ever knowing the truth,” she stated. “Solely a official judge-directed open investigation will grant us access to the documents they state they lack.”

Official Authority

A statutory national investigation has specific judicial authorities, such as the authority to compel individuals to testify and disclose evidence related to the inquiry.

Previous Inquest

An hearing in 2019 – secured by bereaved families – ruled the victims were murdered by the Provisional IRA but did not establish the names of those accountable.

Hambleton said: “Intelligence agencies told the then coroner that they have zero documents or information on what is still Britain's most prolonged open multiple killing of the 20th century, but currently they want to pressure us to participate of this new commission to provide details that they claim has never existed”.

Political Response

Liam Byrne, the MP for the Birmingham area, labeled the government’s decision as “extremely unsatisfactory”.

In a announcement on Twitter, Byrne stated: “Following so much time, so much grief, and countless failures” the families deserve a process that is “autonomous, judge-led, with comprehensive powers and unafraid in the search for the facts.”

Ongoing Grief

Discussing the family’s enduring pain, Hambleton, who leads the Justice 4 the 21, remarked: “No relative of any atrocity of any kind will ever have peace. It is unattainable. The suffering and the sorrow remain.”