Birmingham pub bombings

Birmingham pub bombings
Part of the Troubles
The devastation inside the "Mulberry Bush" pub caused by the bombing. This first attack killed ten people.
Location	Birmingham, England
Date	21 November 1974 20:17 and 20:27 (GMT)
Target	The "Mulberry Bush" and the "Tavern in the Town" pubs
Attack type	Time bombs
Deaths	21
Injured (non-fatal)	182
Suspected perpetrator	Provisional Irish Republican Army

The Birmingham pub bombings occurred on 21 November 1974 in Birmingham, England. The explosions killed 21 people and injured 182.^[1] The devices were placed in two central Birmingham pubs – the "Mulberry Bush" and the "Tavern in the Town". Although warnings were sent, the pubs were not evacuated in time. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was immediately and widely blamed for the bombings, although it denied responsibility.^[2] The attack was claimed by a small militant group called Red Flag 74, but this was treated with scepticism by police.^[3]

As the IRA was believed to have been responsible, the bombings yielded a wave of anti-Irish sentiment and attacks on the Irish community in parts of Great Britain.^[4] A few days after, the Prevention of Terrorism Act was swiftly introduced by the British government. Six Irishmen, who became known as the Birmingham Six, were arrested immediately after and in 1975 were given life sentences for the bombings. After 16 years in prison, their convictions were quashed after the court finally acknowledged that the scientific evidence and their "confessions", which had been obtained through violence, were unreliable.

The bombings were the deadliest such attacks in England until the July 2005 London bombings.^[5] A memorial service was held in Birmingham Cathedral on the 35th anniversary and a memorial plaque is in the grounds of Saint Philip's Cathedral in Birmingham.^[6]

Explosions

At 20:11 a man with an Irish accent telephoned the Birmingham Post newspaper and said: "There is a bomb planted in the Rotunda and there is a bomb in New Street at the tax office".^[7] A telephoned warning was also sent to the Birmingham Evening Mail newspaper giving an IRA code name and warning of a bomb in the Rotunda.^[8][9] The Rotunda was a 25-storey office block that housed the "Mulberry Bush" pub on its lower two floors.^[10] The police started to check the upper floors of the Rotunda but failed to clear the crowded pub at street level. Six minutes after the warning, at 20:17, the bomb exploded inside a duffel bag, devastating the pub.^[7] Ten people were killed in this explosion and dozens injured, including one woman who was so badly wounded she was given the last rites administered by the Catholic Church to those on the point of death.

Police were attempting to clear the nearby "Tavern in the Town" basement pub on New Street below King Edward House, when at 20:27 a second bomb exploded there, killing another 11 people and leaving many with appalling injuries. The bodies of the dead and injured were strewn about the ruined pub.^[2] A passing West Midlands bus was wrecked in the blast.^[11] The explosion was so powerful that several victims were blown through a brick wall into an area just below the main front entrance to King Edward House. Their remains were wedged between the rubble and underground electric cables; it took hours for firemen to remove them.^[12] The two pubs were about 50 yards (46 m) apart.^[2] Buildings near the pubs were damaged and passersby in the street were struck by flying glass from shattered shop windows.

A third device, an "Eversoft Frangex" bomb,^[13] was placed outside a branch of Barclays Bank on Hagley Road but failed to detonate.^[14]

Altogether, 21 people were killed and 182 people were injured. Most of the dead and wounded were young people between the ages of 17 and 25, including two brothers, Desmond and Eugene Reilly. One of the victims, 18-year-old Maxine Hambleton, had not been a customer. She had just gone into the "Tavern in the Town" to hand out tickets to friends for a party. She was killed seconds after entering the pub and had been standing beside the bag containing the bomb when it exploded. Her friend Jane Davis, aged 17, was the youngest victim of the two bombings.^[15]

Aftermath

The media, the police and the government immediately blamed the IRA for the bombings.^[2] A few days after, the British Government introduced the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Among other things, this allowed suspects to be held up to 7 days without charge and allowed people to be deported from Great Britain to either Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland.^[10][16] Roy Jenkins, then British Home Secretary, called the Act "draconian measures unprecedented in peacetime", but nevertheless deemed it necessary.^[16] There were also calls to reintroduce hanging for those convicted of terrorist acts. Dáithí Ó Conaill, a member of the IRA's Army Council, replied: "For every IRA volunteer they hang, we will hang two British soldiers until the British give in". The bid to reintroduce hanging was unsuccessful.^[17] However, the Prevention of Terrorism Act was passed on 29 November 1974.^[16]

As the bombings were blamed on the IRA, anti-Irish feeling rose in parts of Great Britain. There was a wave of firebombings, bomb threats and attacks on Irish people and Irish-owned businesses. In Birmingham, the Irish Centre was attacked^[3] and there was "talk of English workers dropping bricks on the heads of Irish Catholic workmates on building sites and in factories".^[4] Because of the anger against Irish people in Birmingham after the bombings, the IRA's Army Council placed the city "strictly off-limits" to IRA active service units.^[18]

Responsibility

Provisional IRA

The day after the bombings, the Provisional IRA denied responsibility.^[16] Dáithí Ó Conaill, then a member of the IRA's Army Council, said shortly after the bombings:

If IRA members had carried-out such attacks, they would be court-martialled and could face the death penalty. The IRA has clear guidelines for waging its war. Any attack on non-military installations must be preceded by a 30-minute warning so that no innocent civilians are endangered.^[17]

At the time, IRA sources in London said that the bombs might have been planted by Ulster loyalists "bent on stirring-up a wave of anti-Irish feeling in Britain".^[4]

Robert White wrote in his biography of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh that the IRA leadership and IRA supporters were "horrified" by the bombings.^[19] Ó Brádaigh, then Sinn Féin President, "made inquiries and confirmed that the IRA leadership had not sanctioned the bombs".^[19] Ó Conaill's internal IRA investigation "led him to believe that IRA personnel were not involved". However, journalists undertook their own investigations and concluded that the (lower ranking) IRA members responsible had lied to Ó Conaill.^[19] In a 1985 Granada TV World in Action program, former IRA Chief of Staff, Joe Cahill, acknowledged the IRA's role.^[20] Maureen Mitchell, who survived the bombing, describes meeting an IRA member who she says admitted his involvement, but said that the bombings were a mistake.^[21] Denis Faul called on the IRA to apologize for the bombings. Sinn Féin called the bombings "wrong" and said that if "issues relating to the IRA concerning the Birmingham bombings are still to be addressed, then it is very clearly the Sinn Féin position that this should happen".^[22]

Mick Murray has been named as one of the IRA bombers ^[23] and was sentenced to 12 years at the same trial that convicted the Birmingham Six.^[1]

Red Flag 74

Two days after the bombings, a girl in London phoned a news agency and claimed responsibility on behalf of the "Manchester Brigade of Red Flag 74". This was a small breakaway group from the International Marxist Group and claimed to have about 500 members. Red Flag 74 had claimed responsibility for bombings before, including one at the Tower of London. It also claimed that its members had trained with the IRA in Ireland and that it had received explosives from the IRA. All claims were treated with scepticism by the police.^[3][24]

Birmingham Six

On the night of the bombings, six Irishmen were arrested while about to board a ferry to Belfast and charged with carrying out the bombings. They became known as the Birmingham Six.^[25][26] The men eventually made confessions, which were obtained through violence, and were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in August 1975. During their 16 years in prison there were numerous calls for their release and protests against their ill-treatment and imprisonment. At the conclusion of their second appeal, their convictions were quashed after the scientific evidence and the confessions were found to be unreliable.^[27] They were released on 14 March 1991 after the judgment of the Court of Appeal was handed down.^[28][29][30]

Patrick Hill, one of the Six, said in April 2012 that the Six had learned the names of the real bombers and claimed it was common knowledge among the upper echelons of both the IRA and the British government.^[31]

Campaign to get the criminal investigation reopened

In 2013 Julie and Brian Hambleton, brother and sister of Maxine Hambleton, a 21 year-old victim of the bombings, started a campaign entitled "Justice For The 21". This was in the form of an online petition. The aim was to get the criminal investigation into the bombings reopened and the perpetrators brought to justice.^[32]

Cultural references

On 28 March 1990, ITV broadcast the Granada Television documentary drama Who Bombed Birmingham?, which re-enacted the bombings.^[33] It was written by Rob Ritchie and directed by Mike Beckham, starring John Hurt as Mullin, Martin Shaw as World in Action producer Ian McBride, and Patrick Malahide as Michael Mansfield (QC).^[34][35]

Key elements of the novel The Rotters Club by Jonathan Coe involve the bombings.^[36]

A memorial to the victims of the bombings is in St. Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham.^[37]

References

External links

• Birmingham999.co.uk – includes witness accounts of the bombings
• On this day report by the BBC on the incident
• On this day report by the BBC on the six men being charged
• Birmingham Mail 35th Anniversary Memorial Article showing photographs.

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