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Government officials have decided against establishing a public inquiry into the IRA's 1974 Birmingham city bar explosions.

This Devastating Attack

On 21 November 1974, 21 individuals were killed and 220 hurt when bombs were detonated at the Mulberry Bush pub and Tavern in the Town venues in Birmingham, in an assault widely believed to have been carried out by the IRA.

Legal Consequences

Not a single person has been convicted over the attacks. In 1991, six individuals had their guilty verdicts reversed after serving more than 16 years in detention in what stands as one of the most severe errors of the legal system in United Kingdom history.

Relatives Push for Justice

Families have for decades fought for a open probe into the bombings to uncover what the state knew at the time of the incident and why nobody has been held accountable.

Official Statement

The security minister, Dan Jarvis, said on Thursday that while he had profound empathy for the relatives, the administration had concluded “after thorough deliberation” it would not authorize an probe.

Jarvis stated the administration believes the newly established commission, established to investigate deaths related to the Northern Ireland conflict, could investigate the Birmingham attacks.

Activists Respond

Advocate Julie Hambleton, whose teenage sister Maxine was murdered in the bombings, commented the statement showed “the authorities don't care”.

The 62-year-old has for years campaigned for a open inquiry and said she and other bereaved families had “no intention” of taking part in the commission.

“There is no genuine independence in the commission,” she said, explaining it was “like them grading their own work”.

Demands for Evidence Disclosure

Over the years, bereaved relatives have been requesting the publication of documents from intelligence agencies on the attack – specifically on what the government knew before and following the attack, and what information there is that could result in prosecutions.

“The whole state apparatus is against our families from ever discovering the facts,” she said. “Solely a statutory judge-directed national probe will provide us entry to the documents they assert they don’t have.”

Official Authority

A legally mandated public inquiry has particular official powers, such as the power to oblige participants to attend and provide evidence connected to the investigation.

Previous Investigation

An investigation in 2019 – campaigned for bereaved relatives – ruled the victims were illegally slain by the IRA but failed to identify the names of those culpable.

Hambleton stated: “The security services informed the presiding official that they have zero documents or evidence on what remains England’s most prolonged unresolved mass murder of the 20th century, but currently they want to pressure us to participate of this investigative body to disclose details that they claim has never existed”.

Official Reaction

Liam Byrne, the MP for the local constituency, characterized the cabinet's decision as “extremely disheartening”.

In a message on X, Byrne said: “After such a long period, so much grief, and countless failures” the relatives deserve a mechanism that is “autonomous, judicially directed, with full authorities and unafraid in the search for the truth.”

Enduring Grief

Discussing the families' persistent grief, Hambleton, who heads the Justice 4 the 21, said: “No family of any atrocity of any type will ever have closure. It is impossible. The grief and the anguish remain.”