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Authorities have decided against establishing a national inquiry into the IRA's 1974 Birmingham city pub bombings.

The Horrific Event

Back on 21 November 1974, twenty-one individuals were lost their lives and two hundred twenty injured when bombs were exploded at the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town establishments in Birmingham, in an attack largely thought to have been planned by the Provisional IRA.

Legal Consequences

No one has been found guilty for the bombings. In 1991, six men had their sentences overturned after spending over 16 years in detention in what is considered one of the gravest failures of justice in British history.

Victims' Families Fight for Justice

Relatives have for decades fought for a open probe into the explosions to discover what the government knew at the time of the tragedy and why not a single person has been brought to justice.

Government Decision

The minister for security, Dan Jarvis, announced on recently that while he had sincere sympathy for the families, the cabinet had decided “after detailed review” it would not authorize an probe.

Jarvis explained the government thinks the reconciliation commission, established to examine deaths associated with the Northern Ireland conflict, could investigate the Birmingham bombings.

Advocates React

Campaigner Julie Hambleton, whose teenage sister Maxine was killed in the attacks, commented the decision indicated “the government are indifferent”.

The 62-year-old has long campaigned for a public inquiry and stated she and other grieving families had “no intention” of taking part in the commission.

“There’s no real autonomy in the panel,” she said, adding it was “equivalent to them grading their own homework”.

Calls for Evidence Disclosure

For decades, grieving loved ones have been calling for the publication of documents from intelligence agencies on the event – especially on what the state knew prior to and following the incident, and what proof there is that could lead to arrests.

“The entire British establishment is opposed to our families from ever knowing the truth,” she stated. “Exclusively a statutory judge-directed national probe will provide us access to the files they state they don’t have.”

Official Powers

A legally mandated public probe has distinct official capabilities, such as the power to require individuals to appear and disclose information associated with the investigation.

Previous Investigation

An hearing in 2019 – campaigned for bereaved relatives – concluded the those killed were illegally slain by the IRA but did not determine the identities of those culpable.

Hambleton commented: “The security services advised the presiding official that they have absolutely no files or information on what is still Britain's longest unsolved multiple killing of the 1900s, but now they intend to push us to engage of this Legacy Commission to provide details that they assert has never existed”.

Political Criticism

Liam Byrne, the MP for Hodge Hill and Solihull North, described the cabinet's announcement as “deeply, deeply disheartening”.

In a announcement on social media, Byrne wrote: “Following such a long time, so much pain, and so many failures” the loved ones are entitled to a procedure that is “independent, court-supervised, with comprehensive powers and courageous in the pursuit for the reality.”

Continuing Grief

Reflecting on the family’s ongoing sorrow, Hambleton, who chairs the campaign group, remarked: “No relative of any atrocity of any sort will ever have resolution. It is impossible. The suffering and the grief persist.”