Families of Birmingham bomb victims meet DUP and Sinn Fein

Five families of the 21 killed in the Birmingham pub bombings meet NI parties Credit: PA

Families of the 21 people killed in Birmingham by a bomb planted by the IRA are meeting with Northern Ireland parties.

No-one has been charged with the 1974 blasts since six men were wrongfully convicted and freed from prison in 1991.

Julie Hambleton (left), whose sister Maxine died in the Birmingham pub bombings, with her mother Margaret Hambleton Credit: PA

Julie Hambleton, whose teenage sister Maxine died in the atrocity, is among five other families who will meet with senior figures from Sinn Fein and the DUP.

Ms Hambleton said she is going into the meeting with Sinn Fein with a “blank slate”.

  • Justice For The 21

The families are currently raising money to defend against an appeal by a coroner against a High Court ruling to name the suspects over the Birmingham pub bombings in new inquests.

They raised £40,000 to pay for the judicial review after they were refused legal aid by the Ministry of Justice.

The families have fought for years to have the inquests reopened.

  • Cross-party Support

Separate meetings will be held with DUP leader Arlene Foster and Sinn Fein’s Northern Ireland leader Michelle O’Neill.

Ms Hambleton added: “This is something that we thought it was time to do because we are non-political. We have no political affiliations but we have always fought for and sought cross-party support,which we do not have on the mainland.”

Paul Bodkin's father, Stanley, was killed in the blasts. Credit: PA

“It’s been 43 years and we are still no further forward, we still don’t know who killed them," said Mr Bodkin.

"I am probably more traumatised now than I was then because it’s been 43 years, I’m getting on, I am 65 now and I still don’t know the answers to what happened to my father and why.”