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Ministers have rejected the idea of establishing a open inquiry into the Provisional IRA's 1974-era Birmingham city bar bombings.

This Tragic Event

Back on 21 November 1974, 21 civilians were murdered and two hundred twenty injured when bombs were set off at the Mulberry Bush pub and Tavern in the Town pub venues in Birmingham, in an incident commonly accepted to have been carried out by the Provisional IRA.

Legal Aftermath

Nobody has been convicted for the attacks. Back in 1991, 6 men had their guilty verdicts reversed after enduring more than 16 years in prison in what remains one of the gravest errors of the legal system in UK history.

Relatives Campaign for Answers

Families have for decades pushed for a open investigation into the explosions to discover what the government was aware of at the time of the tragedy and why nobody has been prosecuted.

Official Decision

The minister for security, Dan Jarvis, stated on recently that while he had profound sympathy for the relatives, the administration had determined “after thorough review” it would not commit to an inquiry.

Jarvis said the administration thinks the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, created to examine fatalities connected to the Northern Ireland conflict, could look into the Birmingham bombings.

Campaigners React

Advocate Julie Hambleton, whose teenage sister Maxine was lost her life in the attacks, commented the announcement showed “the administration don't care”.

The sixty-two-year-old has for years campaigned for a public probe and stated she and other bereaved relatives had “no desire” of engaging in the new body.

“There’s no real impartiality in the panel,” she said, noting it was “tantamount to them marking their own work”.

Requests for Document Disclosure

For decades, bereaved relatives have been demanding the release of papers from security services on the event – particularly on what the government knew before and following the bombing, and what information there is that could lead to prosecutions.

“The whole UK government system is resisting our relatives from ever discovering the facts,” she stated. “Exclusively a official judicial national probe will give us access to the files they claim they don’t have.”

Official Powers

A legally mandated open inquiry has particular legal authorities, such as the power to oblige witnesses to attend and provide information connected to the probe.

Prior Inquest

An hearing in 2019 – secured by bereaved relatives – ruled the victims were murdered by the IRA but failed to identify the names of those culpable.

Hambleton said: “Government bodies told the coroner at the time that they have no records or documentation on what remains the UK's longest unresolved mass murder of the 20th century, but currently they want to force us down the route of this new commission to share information that they assert has not been present”.

Political Response

Liam Byrne, the Member of Parliament for the local constituency, characterized the administration's announcement as “extremely disheartening”.

Through a statement on Twitter, Byrne wrote: “After so much period, such immense suffering, and numerous disappointments” the relatives deserve a procedure that is “impartial, judge-led, with comprehensive powers and courageous in the search for the reality.”

Continuing Grief

Speaking of the family’s persistent grief, Hambleton, who chairs the campaign group, remarked: “No relative of any atrocity of any kind will ever have peace. It is impossible. The grief and the anguish remain.”