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Authorities have decided against launching a public inquiry into the Provisional IRA's 1974 Birmingham city bar attacks.

This Devastating Event

Back on 21 November 1974, 21 people were killed and two hundred twenty injured when bombs were detonated at the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town pub venues in Birmingham, in an attack largely thought to have been planned by the Provisional IRA.

Legal Consequences

No one has been sentenced for the bombings. In 1991, 6 defendants had their sentences reversed after spending more than 16 years in jail in what stands as one of the gravest failures of the legal system in UK history.

Victims' Families Campaign for Answers

Families have for years fought for a open probe into the explosions to find out what the government knew at the moment of the incident and why no one has been brought to justice.

Official Statement

The security minister, Dan Jarvis, announced on Thursday that while he had profound sympathy for the loved ones, the administration had determined “after detailed review” it would not commit to an probe.

Jarvis explained the government considers the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, established to look into fatalities associated with the Troubles, could investigate the Birmingham bombings.

Campaigners Respond

Activist Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine was lost her life in the explosions, commented the statement demonstrated “the administration don't care”.

The sixty-two-year-old has for years campaigned for a public investigation and explained she and other bereaved families had “no intention” of participating in the commission.

“There is no real independence in the body,” she stated, noting it was “like them marking their own work”.

Calls for Document Release

Over the years, bereaved loved ones have been calling for the publication of files from government bodies on the attack – especially on what the state was aware of before and following the attack, and what proof there is that could result in legal action.

“The entire UK government system is resisting our families from ever knowing the facts,” she stated. “Only a official judge-led national investigation will grant us entry to the documents they assert they do not possess.”

Legal Authority

A official open inquiry has particular official authorities, including the authority to require individuals to attend and disclose information connected to the inquiry.

Previous Investigation

An hearing in 2019 – campaigned for grieving families – concluded the those killed were illegally slain by the Provisional IRA but did not establish the identities of those responsible.

Hambleton said: “The security services advised the presiding official that they have absolutely no files or information on what is still England’s longest unresolved atrocity of the 1900s, but at present they intend to push us to participate of this new commission to provide information that they claim has never existed”.

Official Reaction

Liam Byrne, the MP for the Birmingham area, labeled the administration's decision as “profoundly unsatisfactory”.

Through a announcement on Twitter, Byrne stated: “After so much period, such immense grief, and so many failures” the families deserve a procedure that is “autonomous, court-supervised, with full powers and unafraid in the quest for the facts.”

Continuing Pain

Speaking of the families' ongoing grief, Hambleton, who chairs the Justice 4 the 21, said: “Not a single family of any horror of any sort will ever have closure. It is unattainable. The suffering and the anguish continue.”