🔗 Share this article Officials Deny Open Investigation into Birmingham Bar Explosions Ministers have ruled out establishing a national probe into the Provisional IRA's 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. The Horrific Attack 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 establishments in Birmingham, in an incident commonly accepted to have been carried out by the Provisional IRA. Legal Consequences Nobody has been sentenced over the bombings. In 1991, 6 defendants had their guilty verdicts reversed after serving over 16 years in prison in what remains one of the gravest miscarriages of the legal system in British history. Victims' Families Fight for Answers Families have for years campaigned for a national investigation into the bombings to uncover what the authorities knew at the moment of the tragedy and why nobody has been prosecuted. Government Statement The minister for security, Dan Jarvis, said on Thursday that while he had sincere sympathy for the loved ones, the government had concluded “after detailed consideration” it would not commit to an investigation. Jarvis said the administration thinks the newly established commission, created to look into deaths related to the Troubles, could examine the Birmingham bombings. Advocates Respond Campaigner Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine was murdered in the explosions, said the decision showed “the administration are indifferent”. The 62-year-old has for decades pushed for a public probe and stated she and other grieving relatives had “no plan” of taking part in the new body. “There is no real autonomy in the body,” she remarked, explaining it was “equivalent to them assessing their own work”. Calls for Document Disclosure For decades, bereaved loved ones have been requesting the disclosure of papers from intelligence agencies on the attack – particularly on what the authorities knew before and after the attack, and what information there is that could bring about legal action. “The whole state apparatus is against our families from ever discovering the truth,” she said. “Only a statutory judge-led open inquiry will grant us entry to the papers they state they lack.” Official Powers A legally mandated public probe has distinct legal capabilities, such as the authority to require participants to attend and disclose information related to the probe. Earlier Investigation An inquest in 2019 – secured by grieving relatives – determined the victims were murdered by the Provisional IRA but did not determine the names of those culpable. Hambleton said: “Intelligence agencies told the then coroner that they have no documents or information on what remains Britain's longest unresolved atrocity of the 1900s, but at present they aim to pressure us down the route of this new commission to provide details that they state has never existed”. Official Criticism Liam Byrne, the Member of Parliament for the Birmingham area, described the administration's ruling as “deeply, deeply disheartening”. In a announcement on X, Byrne wrote: “After such a long time, such immense grief, and countless let-downs” the loved ones merit a procedure that is “independent, court-supervised, with full capabilities and unafraid in the search for the truth.” Continuing Pain Reflecting on the family’s enduring sorrow, Hambleton, who leads the advocacy organization, stated: “Not a single family of any atrocity of any sort will ever have peace. It is impossible. The pain and the anguish persist.”