Birmingham pub bombings 50 years on: Families demand public inquiry
Families of the victims of the Birmingham pub bombings are calling on the government to launch a public inquiry into the atrocity, as ITV News' Ben Chapman reports
Relatives of people killed in the Birmingham pub bombings have called for a public inquiry on the 50th anniversary of the biggest unsolved mass murder in modern British history.
Twenty-one people were killed and more than 200 injured when two bombs exploded minutes apart in two city-centre pubs in November 1974.
The IRA is thought to have been responsible, despite never claiming responsibility.
Six men, who became known as the ‘Birmingham Six,' were wrongly convicted of murder but cleared in 1991.
No one has since been charged in connection with the attacks.
For the families of those killed, the absence of justice has only compounded decades of pain.
“It’s not gone away,” says Pauline Curzon, whose 19-year-old sister, Pamela Palmer, was killed while enjoying an evening out with her boyfriend.
“She’d sat down near the jukebox, which is where they think the bomb had been placed,” Pauline said.
“The fact that it’s unsolved, it doesn’t give you any peace of mind. I feel a bit cynical. I think they know. But they’re not going to tell us.”
By ‘they,' Pauline means the British state, which she and many of the other families suspect of withholding information about the bombings for decades, including about whether it could have been prevented.
After years of campaigning, they secured inquests into the 21 deaths in 2019, only to be disappointed by what they saw as the limited scope of the hearings.
Now Julie Hambleton, who founded the ‘Justice 4 the 21’ group, believes only a statutory public inquiry will force the disclosure of secret documents.
“Who did it? How long have you known? Why didn’t you act? Did you have any pre-warnings?” are among the "cacophony" of questions Julie has for the police and British state.
“We will not go away,” she says, “until we have that for our loved ones and the survivors.”
In recent years, the names of potential suspects have begun to emerge.
At the inquests in 2019, a convicted IRA bomber known as “Witness O” named four of the men responsible as Seamus McLoughlin, Mick Murray, James Gavin and Michael Hayes.
Of those, only Michael Hayes is still alive. Following the inquests, he told ITV News: “I didn’t do it.”
In 2018, an ITV Exposure documentary identified a man living in Belfast, Michael Patrick Reilly, as a potential suspect. He strongly denies any involvement in the bombings.
West Midlands Police are reported to have arrested and questioned him in 2020 but he was released without charge.
The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed last year there had been “insufficient evidence” to bring any new charges.
Journalist and former MP, Chris Mullin, interviewed four men he believes to be the real bombers for his book, ‘Error of Judgement,' which helped to free the Birmingham Six. But he promised not to reveal their names.
He has since named three of them, but still refuses to identify a fourth suspect, whom he calls ‘The Young Planter.’
“My involvement was to rescue the innocent,” he told ITV News. “The only basis on which any of them were going to talk to me was in return for confidentiality.”
West Midlands Police has reiterated an apology for its officers’ handling of the original investigation in 1974, admitting its ‘failure’ then has made it harder to secure convictions now.
The Troubles Legacy Act, passed by the Conservative government last year in an attempt to bring an end to Troubles-era prosecutions, may also make future convictions more difficult, although Labour promised to repeal it if elected.
The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, would not be drawn on whether she would support the families’ calls for a public inquiry when asked by ITV News this week.
“There are issues that we look at around the historic injustices,” she said. “I know we have an important anniversary coming up that will be hugely significant for the families.”
A government spokesman said, “Our deepest sympathies remain with all those who continue to be affected by the horrific pub bombings in Birmingham in 1974.”
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