🔗 Share this article

Authorities have decided against launching a national probe into the IRA's 1974 Birmingham city bar explosions.

This Tragic Attack

Back on 21 November 1974, 21 civilians were murdered and two hundred twenty hurt when bombs were set off at the Mulberry Bush pub and Tavern in the Town establishments in Birmingham, in an assault widely believed to have been carried out by the Irish Republican Army.

Judicial Consequences

No one has been sentenced for the attacks. Back in 1991, six defendants had their sentences quashed after enduring more than 16 years in detention in what remains one of the most severe failures of the legal system in UK history.

Victims' Families Campaign for Justice

Loved ones have for decades campaigned for a open probe into the bombings to find out what the state was aware of at the time of the event and why nobody has been prosecuted.

Official Response

The minister for security, Dan Jarvis, announced on Thursday that while he had sincere empathy for the relatives, the government had determined “after thorough deliberation” it would not commit to an probe.

Jarvis stated the authorities considers the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, established to look into deaths associated with the Northern Ireland conflict, could investigate the Birmingham attacks.

Activists Respond

Advocate Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine was killed in the attacks, said the announcement indicated “the authorities show no concern”.

The 62-year-old has for decades fought for a national investigation and stated she and other grieving families had “no desire” of engaging in the new body.

“There is no genuine independence in the body,” she remarked, adding it was “tantamount to them assessing their own homework”.

Demands for Document Disclosure

For years, bereaved loved ones have been requesting the publication of files from government bodies on the event – particularly on what the government knew before and after the incident, and what information there is that could bring about legal action.

“The entire state apparatus is opposed to our families from ever discovering the truth,” she declared. “Solely a official judicial public investigation will grant us entry to the files they assert they do not possess.”

Official Powers

A statutory open investigation has particular judicial capabilities, encompassing the power to oblige participants to testify and provide information connected to the inquiry.

Prior Inquest

An hearing in 2019 – campaigned for bereaved families – determined the victims were murdered by the IRA but did not determine the identities of those accountable.

Hambleton commented: “Government bodies told the then coroner that they have absolutely no files or information on what remains the UK's most prolonged open atrocity of the last century, but now they want to force us to engage of this investigative body to disclose evidence that they assert has never been available”.

Political Criticism

Liam Byrne, the MP for the Birmingham area, characterized the administration's decision as “deeply, deeply unsatisfactory”.

In a statement on social media, Byrne stated: “After so much period, such immense grief, and so many failures” the families merit a mechanism that is “impartial, judge-led, with comprehensive powers and unafraid in the pursuit for the truth.”

Ongoing Sorrow

Speaking of the family’s ongoing sorrow, Hambleton, who leads the Justice 4 the 21, remarked: “Not a single family of any tragedy of any kind will ever have closure. It doesn’t exist. The grief and the grief remain.”