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Government officials have ruled out establishing a public probe into the IRA's 1974 Birmingham city pub bombings.

This Devastating Incident

On 21 November 1974, 21 people were murdered and 220 hurt when explosive devices were set off at the Mulberry Bush pub and Tavern in the Town establishments in Birmingham, in an incident widely believed to have been planned by the Irish Republican Army.

Legal Aftermath

Not a single person has been found guilty over the bombings. In 1991, 6 individuals had their sentences overturned after serving more than 16 years in detention in what remains one of the worst failures of the legal system in British history.

Relatives Fight for Justice

Loved ones have for decades pushed for a open investigation into the attacks to find out what the authorities was aware of at the moment of the tragedy and why nobody has been prosecuted.

Official Statement

The minister for security, Dan Jarvis, announced on Thursday that while he had profound empathy for the relatives, the cabinet had decided “after careful consideration” it would not authorize an probe.

Jarvis explained the administration thinks the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, created to examine fatalities associated with the Troubles, could examine the Birmingham attacks.

Campaigners React

Advocate Julie Hambleton, whose teenage sister Maxine was murdered in the attacks, stated the decision indicated “the government don't care”.

The sixty-two-year-old has long campaigned for a open probe and stated she and other grieving families had “no plan” of participating in the investigative panel.

“We see no genuine impartiality in the body,” she stated, noting it was “equivalent to them assessing their own work”.

Demands for Evidence Disclosure

For decades, grieving loved ones have been requesting the disclosure of papers from intelligence agencies on the attack – specifically on what the state knew prior to and following the bombing, and what evidence there is that could result in arrests.

“The whole British establishment is against our relatives from ever knowing the truth,” she stated. “Solely a statutory judge-directed open investigation will provide us entry to the documents they state they don’t have.”

Legal Powers

A official national inquiry has specific legal powers, including the authority to compel witnesses to attend and provide information associated with the investigation.

Earlier Inquest

An investigation in 2019 – fought for bereaved families – determined the victims were unlawfully killed by the Provisional IRA but failed to identify the identities of those responsible.

Hambleton commented: “The security services advised the coroner at the time that they have no documents or information on what continues to be the UK's most prolonged open multiple killing of the 20th century, but currently they aim to push us to participate of this Legacy Commission to share information that they state has not been present”.

Official Criticism

Liam Byrne, the Member of Parliament for Hodge Hill and Solihull North, characterized the administration's decision as “deeply, deeply unsatisfactory”.

Through a announcement on social media, Byrne stated: “Following so much time, so much pain, and countless disappointments” the loved ones are entitled to a mechanism that is “autonomous, court-supervised, with comprehensive powers and unafraid in the pursuit for the truth.”

Enduring Pain

Speaking of the family’s ongoing sorrow, Hambleton, who chairs the advocacy organization, said: “No family of any atrocity of any kind will ever have closure. It doesn’t exist. The grief and the sorrow persist.”