🔗 Share this article Officials Reject Public Investigation into Birmingham Pub Attacks Authorities have decided against launching a public inquiry into the IRA's 1974 Birmingham city pub explosions. This Tragic Attack Back on 21 November 1974, 21 civilians were killed and two hundred twenty wounded when bombs were detonated at the Mulberry Bush pub and Tavern in the Town venues in Birmingham, in an attack widely believed to have been orchestrated by the IRA. Judicial Consequences Not a single person has been sentenced over the incidents. Back in 1991, six defendants had their guilty verdicts overturned after spending over 16 years in jail in what remains one of the most severe miscarriages of justice in UK history. Relatives Fight for Truth Families have for decades fought for a public investigation into the explosions to uncover what the state knew at the moment of the tragedy and why not a single person has been brought to justice. Official Response The security minister, Dan Jarvis, announced on recently that while he had deep compassion for the families, the cabinet had concluded “after detailed consideration” it would not establish an probe. Jarvis said the government thinks the reconciliation commission, established to look into fatalities connected to the Northern Ireland conflict, could investigate the Birmingham incidents. Advocates React Advocate Julie Hambleton, whose teenage sister Maxine was lost her life in the bombings, said the announcement indicated “the authorities show no concern”. The sixty-two-year-old has for years fought for a public inquiry and said she and other grieving families had “no intention” of participating in the new body. “We see no genuine independence in the body,” she said, noting it was “equivalent to them grading their own performance”. Demands for Evidence Disclosure For years, grieving relatives have been calling for the publication of papers from government bodies on the event – particularly on what the authorities was aware of prior to and following the attack, and what information there is that could bring about arrests. “The whole state apparatus is opposed to our relatives from ever discovering the truth,” she said. “Solely a statutory judicial open probe will provide us entry to the papers they state they lack.” Legal Authority A statutory open probe has specific legal capabilities, such as the authority to require participants to attend and provide details related to the probe. Earlier Hearing An hearing in 2019 – campaigned for grieving relatives – concluded the those killed were illegally slain by the Provisional IRA but did not determine the identities of those culpable. Hambleton commented: “The security services told the presiding official that they have no documents or information on what is still England’s longest unsolved multiple killing of the 1900s, but currently they want to pressure us down the route of this investigative body to disclose evidence that they assert has never been available”. Political Response Liam Byrne, the MP for the local constituency, described the administration's ruling as “profoundly disappointing”. In a statement on social media, Byrne said: “Following such a long period, such immense pain, and so many failures” the loved ones are entitled to a mechanism that is “autonomous, judicially directed, with complete capabilities and courageous in the pursuit for the facts.” Enduring Pain Speaking of the families' ongoing sorrow, Hambleton, who chairs the Justice 4 the 21, said: “No relative of any atrocity of any kind will ever have resolution. It is impossible. The suffering and the anguish persist.”