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Ministers have decided against initiating a open investigation into the IRA's 1974 Birmingham pub attacks.

The Devastating Incident

Back on 21 November 1974, 21 civilians were killed and 220 injured when bombs were set off at the Mulberry Bush pub and Tavern in the Town establishments in Birmingham, in an incident commonly accepted to have been planned by the IRA.

Judicial Fallout

Nobody has been convicted over the incidents. In 1991, six men had their sentences reversed after serving more than 16 years in detention in what is considered one of the worst errors of justice in British history.

Victims' Families Push for Justice

Families have for decades pushed for a open inquiry into the explosions to discover what the state knew at the time of the incident and why no one has been prosecuted.

Official Response

The minister for security, Dan Jarvis, stated on Thursday that while he had sincere compassion for the relatives, the government had concluded “after detailed deliberation” it would not establish an investigation.

Jarvis explained the government considers the newly established commission, set up to examine fatalities associated with the Northern Ireland conflict, could look into the Birmingham attacks.

Campaigners React

Campaigner Julie Hambleton, whose teenage sister Maxine was murdered in the bombings, commented the announcement indicated “the government show no concern”.

The sixty-two-year-old has for years pushed for a public investigation and said she and other bereaved relatives had “no intention” of taking part in the new body.

“We see no true impartiality in the commission,” she remarked, noting it was “like them assessing their own performance”.

Requests for Document Disclosure

For years, grieving loved ones have been calling for the publication of documents from intelligence agencies on the event – especially on what the state was aware of prior to and following the incident, and what evidence there is that could result in prosecutions.

“The entire state apparatus is opposed to our families from ever discovering the reality,” she said. “Only a official judge-directed national probe will give us access to the files they claim they don’t have.”

Legal Authority

A legally mandated national inquiry has specific legal capabilities, including the authority to require individuals to appear and provide evidence connected to the probe.

Previous Hearing

An hearing in 2019 – secured by grieving families – ruled the victims were unlawfully killed by the IRA but failed to identify the identities of those responsible.

Hambleton said: “Intelligence agencies advised the coroner at the time that they have no documents or evidence on what is still the UK's longest open mass murder of the 1900s, but now they want to pressure us to participate of this investigative body to provide information that they state has never been available”.

Official Response

Liam Byrne, the MP for the local constituency, described the government’s ruling as “profoundly disheartening”.

In a statement on social media, Byrne stated: “After such a long time, such immense grief, and numerous disappointments” the families deserve a process that is “independent, judge-led, with full authorities and courageous in the pursuit for the reality.”

Ongoing Sorrow

Discussing the families' persistent grief, Hambleton, who chairs the campaign group, remarked: “No relative of any tragedy of any type will ever have resolution. It doesn’t exist. The grief and the sorrow continue.”