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

This Tragic Attack

Back on 21 November 1974, 21 people were murdered and two hundred twenty wounded when explosive devices were exploded at the Mulberry Bush pub and Tavern in the Town pub establishments in Birmingham, in an incident widely believed to have been carried out by the Irish Republican Army.

Legal Consequences

No one has been found guilty over the attacks. In 1991, 6 men had their guilty verdicts overturned after spending over 16 years in prison in what is considered one of the worst miscarriages of the legal system in UK history.

Relatives Fight for Truth

Relatives have for years fought for a open investigation into the explosions to find out what the government knew at the time of the event and why not a single person has been prosecuted.

Official Response

The security minister, Dan Jarvis, announced on Thursday that while he had profound sympathy for the families, the administration had concluded “after detailed review” it would not establish an probe.

Jarvis said the government believes the reconciliation commission, set up to examine fatalities associated with the Northern Ireland conflict, could look into the Birmingham incidents.

Advocates Respond

Activist Julie Hambleton, whose teenage sister Maxine was killed in the explosions, commented the statement showed “the authorities don't care”.

The 62-year-old has long campaigned for a national investigation and stated she and other grieving relatives had “no desire” of taking part in the commission.

“There’s no true independence in the body,” she said, noting it was “like them assessing their own homework”.

Calls for Document Disclosure

For years, grieving loved ones have been requesting the release of files from intelligence agencies on the attack – especially on what the government was aware of prior to and after the attack, and what information there is that could bring about prosecutions.

“The entire state apparatus is against our families from ever learning the reality,” she declared. “Solely a statutory judge-directed public inquiry will grant us access to the documents they state they do not possess.”

Official Authority

A statutory public inquiry has distinct judicial powers, encompassing the power to require individuals to appear and reveal details associated with the inquiry.

Prior Investigation

An investigation in 2019 – campaigned for grieving families – determined the victims were murdered by the IRA but did not determine the names of those culpable.

Hambleton stated: “Government bodies advised the presiding official that they have zero records or evidence on what continues to be the UK's longest unsolved atrocity of the last century, but currently they aim to push us to participate of this Legacy Commission to disclose details that they assert has not been present”.

Political Response

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

In a message on Twitter, Byrne wrote: “After so much period, such immense pain, and countless failures” the relatives are entitled to a process that is “impartial, judge-led, with complete authorities and unafraid in the search for the reality.”

Ongoing Grief

Discussing the families' ongoing sorrow, Hambleton, who chairs the advocacy organization, stated: “No family of any tragedy of any kind will ever have peace. It doesn’t exist. The pain and the sorrow persist.”