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Ministers have rejected the idea of launching a national probe into the IRA's 1974 Birmingham city bar explosions.

The Devastating Attack

On 21 November 1974, twenty-one people were lost their lives and two hundred twenty wounded when explosive devices were detonated at the Mulberry Bush pub and Tavern in the Town venues in Birmingham, in an attack widely believed to have been planned by the IRA.

Legal Consequences

Not a single person has been found guilty for the bombings. In 1991, 6 men had their convictions quashed after serving more than 16 years in detention in what stands as one of the most severe errors of justice in British history.

Relatives Campaign for Justice

Families have for years campaigned for a national probe into the attacks to find out what the authorities was aware of at the moment of the tragedy and why nobody has been prosecuted.

Government Statement

The minister for security, Dan Jarvis, announced on recently that while he had deep empathy for the loved ones, the government had concluded “after thorough review” it would not authorize an inquiry.

Jarvis explained the authorities thinks the newly established commission, established to look into deaths related to the Troubles, could examine the Birmingham attacks.

Activists Respond

Campaigner Julie Hambleton, whose teenage sister Maxine was murdered in the explosions, commented the announcement demonstrated “the administration don't care”.

The sixty-two-year-old has long fought for a public inquiry and explained she and other bereaved relatives had “no intention” of participating in the investigative panel.

“There’s no genuine impartiality in the panel,” she said, noting it was “equivalent to them assessing their own performance”.

Calls for Evidence Release

For decades, bereaved relatives have been requesting the disclosure of documents from security services on the incident – particularly on what the state was aware of prior to and after the incident, and what evidence there is that could bring about arrests.

“The entire British establishment is opposed to our families from ever knowing the facts,” she stated. “Solely a statutory judge-directed open investigation will provide us access to the documents they state they lack.”

Official Powers

A legally mandated public probe has particular legal authorities, including the ability to compel witnesses to attend and disclose details related to the inquiry.

Previous Inquest

An inquest in 2019 – campaigned for grieving families – concluded the victims were illegally slain by the Provisional IRA but did not determine the identities of those accountable.

Hambleton said: “Intelligence agencies told the then coroner that they have zero documents or evidence on what is still the UK's most prolonged unsolved mass murder of the last century, but at present they intend to push us to engage of this new commission to share evidence that they state has never existed”.

Official Reaction

Liam Byrne, the MP for Hodge Hill and Solihull North, labeled the cabinet's decision as “deeply, deeply unsatisfactory”.

In a message on Twitter, Byrne wrote: “Following so much time, so much grief, and so many failures” the families merit a mechanism that is “impartial, judge-led, with complete capabilities and unafraid in the search for the facts.”

Continuing Pain

Reflecting on the family’s enduring pain, Hambleton, who leads the advocacy organization, stated: “Not a single family of any tragedy of any sort will ever have resolution. It is impossible. The suffering and the anguish continue.”