🔗 Share this article Ministers Rule Out National Inquiry into Birmingham Pub Attacks Ministers have decided against launching a open probe into the IRA's 1974-era Birmingham city pub attacks. The Devastating Event Back on 21 November 1974, twenty-one people were lost their lives and two hundred twenty hurt when bombs were set off at the Mulberry Bush pub and Tavern in the Town pub establishments in Birmingham, in an assault commonly accepted to have been carried out by the Provisional IRA. Legal Consequences No one has been sentenced for the incidents. In 1991, six defendants had their convictions overturned after spending over 16 years in jail in what stands as one of the gravest errors of justice in British history. Families Push for Answers Loved ones have for decades fought for a national investigation into the bombings to discover what the authorities was aware of at the time of the tragedy and why nobody has been brought to justice. Official Decision The minister for security, Dan Jarvis, announced on Thursday that while he had profound empathy for the relatives, the government had determined “after detailed deliberation” it would not authorize an inquiry. Jarvis stated the administration believes the newly established commission, set up to look into deaths related to the Northern Ireland conflict, could investigate the Birmingham incidents. Activists React Activist Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine was murdered in the attacks, said the announcement demonstrated “the administration are indifferent”. The sixty-two-year-old has long fought for a public probe and said she and other bereaved families had “no plan” of participating in the new body. “There is no real impartiality in the commission,” she remarked, noting it was “like them marking their own work”. Calls for Evidence Release Over the years, grieving families have been requesting the release of papers from intelligence agencies on the incident – especially on what the government was aware of before and following the bombing, and what proof there is that could bring about prosecutions. “The entire UK government system is resisting our families from ever discovering the facts,” she declared. “Only a official judge-directed public inquiry will provide us entry to the documents they assert they lack.” Legal Authority A statutory open probe has particular legal powers, such as the ability to require individuals to testify and disclose details connected to the probe. Earlier Inquest An inquest in 2019 – campaigned for bereaved families – concluded the victims were illegally slain by the IRA but did not determine the names of those responsible. Hambleton said: “The security services told the presiding official that they have absolutely no records or documentation on what is still England’s most prolonged open multiple killing of the last century, but currently they intend to push us down the route of this new commission to disclose evidence that they state has not been present”. Official Reaction Liam Byrne, the MP for Hodge Hill and Solihull North, characterized the government’s decision as “profoundly disheartening”. Through a announcement on Twitter, Byrne wrote: “Following so much time, so much pain, and countless let-downs” the loved ones merit a process that is “autonomous, judge-led, with full capabilities and unafraid in the quest for the truth.” Enduring Pain Speaking of the family’s persistent sorrow, Hambleton, who chairs the Justice 4 the 21, remarked: “No relative of any horror of any kind will ever have peace. It is unattainable. The grief and the grief remain.”