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Ministers have ruled out initiating a open investigation into the Provisional IRA's 1974-era Birmingham city pub attacks.

The Tragic Event

On 21 November 1974, twenty-one individuals were killed and 220 hurt when explosive devices were exploded at the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town pub venues in Birmingham, in an attack widely believed to have been planned by the IRA.

Legal Fallout

No one has been convicted over the incidents. In 1991, 6 men had their convictions overturned after enduring more than 16 years in prison in what remains one of the worst errors of justice in UK history.

Victims' Families Fight for Truth

Families have for years fought for a national probe into the explosions to discover what the government knew at the moment of the tragedy and why nobody has been held accountable.

Official Statement

The security minister, Dan Jarvis, announced on Thursday that while he had sincere empathy for the relatives, the government had determined “after detailed review” it would not authorize an probe.

Jarvis stated the government thinks the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, created to examine fatalities associated with the Northern Ireland conflict, could look into the Birmingham bombings.

Activists React

Advocate Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine was lost her life in the bombings, commented the statement showed “the authorities show no concern”.

The sixty-two-year-old has for decades campaigned for a national probe and said she and other bereaved families had “no intention” of taking part in the commission.

“There is no genuine autonomy in the commission,” she said, explaining it was “equivalent to them grading their own work”.

Calls for Document Release

Over the years, bereaved relatives have been requesting the release of papers from security services on the event – specifically on what the government was aware of prior to and following the incident, and what proof there is that could lead to legal action.

“The entire British establishment is opposed to our families from ever knowing the truth,” she said. “Only a statutory judge-directed open investigation will give us entry to the files they claim they do not possess.”

Official Powers

A legally mandated open investigation has distinct legal powers, including the power to require participants to testify and disclose evidence associated with the probe.

Earlier Hearing

An hearing in 2019 – campaigned for bereaved relatives – ruled the those killed were illegally slain by the IRA but failed to identify the names of those responsible.

Hambleton commented: “The security services informed the coroner at the time that they have absolutely no records or information on what remains Britain's most prolonged unsolved mass murder of the 1900s, but at present they want to force us down the route of this investigative body to provide details that they claim has never existed”.

Political Response

Liam Byrne, the Member of Parliament for Hodge Hill and Solihull North, labeled the government’s announcement as “deeply, deeply unsatisfactory”.

Through a announcement on Twitter, Byrne wrote: “Following such a long period, so much pain, and so many let-downs” the relatives merit a mechanism that is “impartial, judge-led, with full powers and courageous in the pursuit for the truth.”

Ongoing Grief

Speaking of the families' ongoing pain, Hambleton, who leads the campaign group, said: “No relative of any tragedy of any sort will ever have closure. It is impossible. The pain and the sorrow persist.”