🔗 Share this article Officials Rule Out National Investigation into Birmingham City Pub Attacks Ministers have ruled out initiating a national investigation into the Provisional IRA's 1974 Birmingham bar attacks. The Horrific Event Back on 21 November 1974, 21 individuals were lost their lives and two hundred twenty wounded when bombs were set off at the Mulberry Bush pub and Tavern in the Town venues in Birmingham, in an attack largely thought to have been planned by the Provisional IRA. Judicial Fallout Not a single person has been sentenced over the attacks. Back in 1991, six defendants had their convictions reversed after spending over 16 years in prison in what stands as one of the gravest errors of justice in United Kingdom history. Families Campaign for Justice Families have for decades pushed for a public probe into the attacks to discover what the state was aware of at the moment of the event and why not a single person has been prosecuted. Official Decision The minister for security, Dan Jarvis, announced on recently that while he had profound empathy for the families, the government had decided “after detailed deliberation” it would not establish an probe. Jarvis explained the government believes the newly established commission, set up to investigate fatalities related to the Troubles, could look into the Birmingham attacks. Campaigners React Advocate Julie Hambleton, whose teenage sister Maxine was murdered in the bombings, commented the announcement showed “the administration don't care”. The 62-year-old has for decades pushed for a national investigation and said she and other bereaved families had “no desire” of engaging in the investigative panel. “There’s no genuine independence in the panel,” she said, adding it was “tantamount to them assessing their own performance”. Calls for Evidence Release For years, grieving relatives have been requesting the publication of files from government bodies on the attack – especially on what the government knew prior to and after the attack, and what proof there is that could bring about legal action. “The entire British establishment is against our relatives from ever discovering the truth,” she said. “Exclusively a official judicial open probe will provide us access to the documents they state they lack.” Official Authority A legally mandated public inquiry has particular official powers, including the power to compel participants to attend and reveal evidence associated with the investigation. Prior Inquest An inquest in 2019 – secured by bereaved relatives – determined the those killed were illegally slain by the IRA but did not establish the identities of those responsible. Hambleton commented: “Intelligence agencies advised the coroner at the time that they have absolutely no files or evidence on what remains Britain's longest open atrocity of the 20th century, but at present they intend to force us to engage of this new commission to share information that they claim has not been present”. Official Response Liam Byrne, the Member of Parliament for the Birmingham area, characterized the administration's decision as “deeply, deeply disheartening”. Through a statement on social media, Byrne said: “After such a long time, so much grief, and countless disappointments” the families are entitled to a procedure that is “autonomous, judicially directed, with full authorities and courageous in the pursuit for the reality.” Continuing Pain Speaking of the family’s enduring sorrow, Hambleton, who heads the campaign group, said: “Not a single family of any atrocity of any type will ever have peace. It is unattainable. The grief and the grief continue.”