🔗 Share this article Ministers Deny National Probe into Birmingham City Pub Attacks Authorities have rejected the idea of establishing a open investigation into the IRA's 1974 Birmingham bar bombings. The Horrific Attack Back on 21 November 1974, 21 individuals were murdered and 220 wounded when bombs were set off at the Mulberry Bush pub and Tavern in the Town venues in Birmingham, in an assault widely believed to have been planned by the Irish Republican Army. Judicial Fallout No one has been convicted over the bombings. Back in 1991, six individuals had their sentences quashed after serving more than 16 years in prison in what stands as one of the worst errors of justice in British history. Relatives Push for Answers Relatives have for decades campaigned for a open inquiry into the bombings to discover what the government knew at the moment of the tragedy and why not a single person has been held accountable. Official Statement The minister for security, Dan Jarvis, stated on Thursday that while he had deep empathy for the families, the government had determined “after detailed deliberation” it would not authorize an investigation. Jarvis stated the government believes the reconciliation commission, established to look into fatalities related to the Northern Ireland conflict, could look into the Birmingham incidents. Advocates Respond Advocate Julie Hambleton, whose teenage sister Maxine was lost her life in the bombings, said the statement indicated “the administration show no concern”. The 62-year-old has for decades pushed for a national inquiry and explained she and other bereaved families had “no intention” of taking part in the new body. “We see no real impartiality in the panel,” she said, adding it was “equivalent to them marking their own homework”. Requests for Evidence Disclosure For years, grieving families have been calling for the disclosure of papers from security services on the event – especially on what the state was aware of before and after the attack, and what information there is that could bring about legal action. “The whole UK government system is against our families from ever discovering the facts,” she declared. “Exclusively a statutory judge-directed national probe will provide us access to the files they assert they don’t have.” Official Capabilities A legally mandated open investigation has specific judicial capabilities, including the power to compel witnesses to attend and disclose information related to the probe. Previous Hearing An inquest in 2019 – campaigned for bereaved families – determined the those killed were illegally slain by the IRA but failed to identify the names of those responsible. Hambleton stated: “The security services informed the presiding official that they have zero documents or documentation on what is still Britain's most prolonged open mass murder of the 1900s, but at present they aim to push us to participate of this investigative body to share details that they claim has never existed”. Official Response Liam Byrne, the MP for the local constituency, labeled the administration's decision as “deeply, deeply unsatisfactory”. In a announcement on X, Byrne wrote: “After so much period, such immense grief, and countless let-downs” the families deserve a mechanism that is “impartial, court-supervised, with comprehensive authorities and unafraid in the quest for the facts.” Continuing Pain Discussing the family’s persistent sorrow, Hambleton, who chairs the Justice 4 the 21, remarked: “Not a single family of any horror of any type will ever have resolution. It doesn’t exist. The suffering and the grief remain.”