Birmingham pub bombings

Birmingham pub bombings
Part of the Troubles
Aftermath of the explosion in the Mulberry Bush pub, which 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
Non-fatal injuries	182
Perpetrators	Provisional Irish Republican Army

The Birmingham pub bombings were a series of bombings which occurred in public houses on 21 November 1974 in Birmingham, England, killing 21 people and injuring 182 others.^[1] Although the Provisional Irish Republican Army have never officially admitted responsibility for the Birmingham pub bombings,^[2] a former senior officer of the organization confessed to their involvement in 2014.^[3]

Six Irishmen were arrested within hours of the blasts, and in 1975 sentenced to life imprisonment for the bombings. The men—who became known as the Birmingham Six—consistently maintained their innocence and insisted police had coerced them into signing false confessions through severe physical and psychological abuse. (The convictions of the Birmingham Six were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory and quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1991.)

Within one week of the Birmingham pub bombings, the British Government signed into effect the the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1974; an Act which allowed suspected IRA activists to be held for up to seven days, and their deportation if proven or suspected of involvement in terrorism.

The Birmingham pub bombings are seen as one of the deadliest acts of the Troubles; the deadliest act of terrorism to occur in Britain between World War II and the 2005 London bombings;^[4] and one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history.

Background

The IRA had been carrying out a bombing campaign in England since 1973. It attacked what it saw as military, political, economic and symbolic targets. This included attacks on infrastructure and businesses. Telephoned warnings were usually sent before attacks on civilian targets. The goal was to damage the economy and cause severe disruption to daily life, which would put pressure on the British government to withdraw from Northern Ireland.^[5]

In 1974 the IRA stepped up its bombing campaign in England and on average there was an attack every three days.^[6] Five bombs exploded in Birmingham on 14 July, including one in the Rotunda and one at Nechells power station.^[7] On 5 October the IRA bombed two pubs in Guildford frequented by military personnel, killing four soldiers and a civilian. Another soldier and a civilian were killed on 7 November when a pub near Woolwich Barracks was bombed.

On 14 November, IRA member James McDade was killed in a premature explosion while planting a bomb at a telephone exchange in Coventry. McDade was from Belfast but had been living in Birmingham. The local republican movement planned to have a paramilitary guard of honour accompany his coffin as it left England. The government said it would not be allowed and hundreds of police were deployed to prevent it.^[8]

New Street in central Birmingham facing the cylindrical Rotunda. Visible on the right are the sign and doorway of "The Yard of Ale", the premises formerly occupied by the "Tavern in the Town"

Explosions

Mulberry Bush

At 20:11, an unknown man with a distinct Irish accent telephoned the Birmingham Post newspaper. The call was answered by an operator named Ian Cropper. To Cropper, this individual stated the words: "There is a bomb planted in the Rotunda and there is a bomb in New Street at the tax office" before terminating the call.^[9] A similar warning was also sent to the Birmingham Evening Mail newspaper, with the anonymous caller(s) giving an official IRA code word to indicate the authenticity of these threats.^[10][11]

The Rotunda was a 25-storey office block that housed the "Mulberry Bush" pub on its lower two floors.^[12] Within minutes of the anonymous phone threat, the police had arrived at this location and had begun to check the upper floors of the building for explosive devices, but had not begun to clear the crowded pub located street level. At 20:17, just six minutes after the first telephone warning had been delivered to the Birmingham Post, the bomb—which had been concealed inside a duffel bag—exploded, devastating the pub.^[9] Eight people were people were killed outright in this explosion, with dozens injured. Two of those injured in this explosion—Thomas Chaytor and James Craig—would each succumb to their injuries on 28 November and 10 December respectively.^[13] Another individual who had been wounded was a 21-year-old woman named Maureen Carlin, who was so badly wounded she would later recollect informing her fiancé—himself badly wounded in the explosion:—"If I die, just remember I love you."^[14] Carlin was given the last rites, with surgeons initially doubtful she would live, although she would recover from her injuries.

Tavern in the Town

Police were attempting to clear the nearby "Tavern in the Town", a basement pub on New Street, when at 20:27 a second bomb exploded there. It killed a further 11 people and injured every person present in the pub—many severerely.^[15] The bodies of the dead and injured were strewn about the ruined pub.^[2] A passing West Midlands bus was wrecked in the blast.^[16] The explosion was so powerful that several victims were blown through a brick wall. Their remains were wedged between the rubble and underground electric cables; it took hours for firemen to free them.^[17] 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 windows.

After the blasts, police evacuated all pubs in the city centre and halted all bus services. The streets became crowded with people attempting to leave the area on foot. The resulting traffic jams prevented ambulances getting to the scene quickly and many of the injured were ferried to hospital in taxis.^[12] Police commandeered all available rooms in the City Centre Hotel on New Street and it became an emergency first-aid post.^[12]

At 21:15, a third bomb was found concealed in a bag outside a bank on Hagley Road, approximately two miles from the site of the first two explosions. The detonator to this device did activate when a policeman prodded the bag, but the bomb failed to explode.^[18][19]

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 of Irish descent: Desmond and Eugene Reilly (aged 22 and 23 respectively). One of the victims killed in the second explosion, 18-year-old Maxine Hambleton, had only 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, 17-year-old Jane Davis, was the youngest victim of the bombings.^[20][21]

Aftermath

The bombings were immediately blamed on the IRA, and the police and government came under great pressure to clamp down on the organization.^[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.^[12][22] There were also calls to reintroduce hanging for those convicted of terrorist acts. The bid to reintroduce hanging was unsuccessful.^[23]

One week after the Birmingham pub bombings, on 27 November, Roy Jenkins, then British Home Secretary, signed into effect the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1974. (This Act became law on 29 November.)^[22] In reference to the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1974, Jenkins conceded provisions detailed were "draconian measures unprecedented in peacetime", but nevertheless deemed the Act necessary.^[22]

The bombings stoked considerable anti-Irish sentiment in Birmingham, and sparked a wave of attacks on the Irish community in parts of England.^[12] Irish homes, pubs, businesses and community centres were attacked, in some cases with firebombs.^[12] Irish people were assaulted^[12] and there was "talk of English workers dropping bricks on the heads of Irish Catholic workmates on building sites".^[24] Workers at thirty factories in the Midlands went on strike in protest at the bombings, while workers at airports refused to handle flights bound for Ireland.^[12] 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.^[25] In Northern Ireland, loyalist paramilitaries carried out a wave of "revenge attacks" on Irish Catholics. In the two days following the bombings, five Catholic civilians were shot dead by loyalists.^[26]

External images

The memorial plaque commemorating the victims of the Birmingham Pub Bombings

A memorial plaque for the victims is in the grounds of Birmingham's Saint Philip's Cathedral.^[27]

Responsibility

On the night of the bombings, six Irishmen were arrested at Heysham Port while about to board a ferry to Belfast and charged with carrying out the bombings. They became known as the "Birmingham Six".^[28][29] The men were from Belfast but had lived in Birmingham for some time. They knew IRA member James McDade and had been travelling to Belfast for his funeral and to visit their families.^[12] They had got a train from Birmingham New Street station shortly before the bombs exploded. Four of the men signed confessions written by police. However, they maintained their innocence and claimed officers had coerced them into signing the confessions through severe physical and psychological abuse. This included beating, deprivation of food and sleep, mock executions, intimidation, verbal abuse and threats against them and their families.^[30]

At the time, the Provisional IRA denied responsibility for the bombings.^[22] It is said that the IRA leadership and IRA supporters were "horrified" by the bombings.^[31] Brendan Magill, Sinn Féin's national organizer in Britain, called the bombings "disgraceful".^[32] Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, then Sinn Féin President, "made inquiries and confirmed that the IRA leadership had not sanctioned the bombs".^[31] Dáithí Ó Conaill, then a member of the IRA's Army Council, said shortly after:

Ó Conaill also said that none of the Birmingham Six had never been members of the IRA.

Red Flag 74—a small breakaway faction of the International Marxist Group—claimed responsibility for the bombings at the time. It had claimed responsibility for bombings before and said it received training and explosives from the IRA. However, the police did not take the claims seriously.^[33][34]

The Birmingham Six were sentenced to life imprisonment in August 1975. They were convicted based on their confessions, on Griess test results, and on circumstantial evidence. At the same trial, IRA member Michael Murray, Michael Sheehan and James Kelly were convicted for conspiring to cause explosions. During the trial, one of the six—John Walker—claimed that Murray had privately admitted being one of the bombers.^[30] Murray allegedly told Walker: "I'm very sorry to see yous in here. Nothing went right that night. The first telephone box we got to was out of order".^[35] The six said they were "scapegoats" because police did not have enough evidence to convict the real bombers. During their 16 years in prison there were numerous calls for their release and protests against their ill-treatment and imprisonment.

In 1985, World in Action, a Granada Television program, presented evidence that seriously challenged the validity of the convictions. On the program, former IRA Chief of Staff, Joe Cahill, acknowledged that IRA members had been involved.^[36] In 1986, journalist Chris Mullin published Error of Judgement: Truth About the Birmingham Bombings, which provided further evidence that the men had been wrongly convicted. It also included anonymous interviews with some of those who claimed to have been involved in the bombings. They claimed the bomb warning had been delayed because the telephone box was out-of-order and by the time they got to another phone it was too late.^[37] Maureen Mitchell, who survived the bombing, claimed in 2009 she met an IRA member who admitted his involvement, but who called the bombings a mistake.^[38] On 28 March 1990, ITV broadcast the Granada Television documentary drama, Who Bombed Birmingham?, which concluded that the six were wrongly convicted. The programme's investigations established five men it believed to be the bombers, it named four of them.^[39] One was Michael Murray.^[40] The programme also claimed the bombings were planned by Seamus McLoughlin (aka Belfast Jimmy). Others bombers included bomb maker James Francis Gavin (aka James Kelly) and bomb planter Michael Christopher Anthony Hayes.^[41]

At the conclusion of the Birmingham Six's second appeal in 1991, their convictions were quashed after the evidence and the confessions were found to be unreliable.^[42] They were released on 14 March 1991 after the judgment of the Court of Appeal was handed down.^[43][44][45]

One of the Birmingham Six, Patrick Hill, later stated that police had told them from the beginning: "They didn't care if we did it or not – that people right at the top needed convictions". He said that the six had learned the names of the real bombers and claimed their identities were known among the upper echelons of both the IRA and the British government.^[46] He said that he was told by IRA members that five people carried out the bombings; two of whom had died, and two of whom had been given immunity by the British government due to the Good Friday Agreement.^[47] Both Patrick Hill and Brian Hambleton, of Justice for the 21, believe they have evidence that a British double agent was part of an IRA unit that carried out the bombings.^[48][49] The British government has put a 75-year embargo on documents relating to the bombings.^[49]

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".^[50]

In 2013 Julie and Brian Hambleton—brother and sister of Maxine Hambleton, a victim of the bombings—started a campaign called "Justice for the 21". Its stated aim is to get the criminal investigation into the bombings reopened and the perpetrators brought to justice.^[51]

In 2014, former senior IRA officer Kieran Conway admitted that the terrorist group had carried out the Birmingham pub bombings.^[52]

Cultural references

On 28 March 1990, ITV broadcast the Granada Television documentary drama Who Bombed Birmingham?, which re-enacted the bombings.^[53] 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).^[54][55]

Key elements of the novel The Rotters Club by Jonathan Coe involve the bombings.^[56]

See also

References

Cited works and further reading

• Chalk, Peter (2012). The Encyclopedia of Terrorism - Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-30895-6. 
• Geraghty, Tony (1998). The Irish War: The Hidden Conflict Between the IRA and British Intelligence. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-8018-6456-9. 
• Gibson, Brian (1976). The Birmingham Bombs. Barry Rose Law. ISBN 978-0-859-92070-4. 
• Hill, Paddy (1996). Forever Lost, Forever Gone. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-747-52125-9. 
• McGladdery, Gary (2006). The Provisional IRA in England: The Bombing Campaign 1973-1997. Irish Academic Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0-716-53374-0. 
• Mullin, Chris (1997). Error of Judgement: The Truth about the Birmingham Bombings. Poolbeg Press. ISBN 978-1-853-71365-1. 
• Wilson, Colin (1985). Encyclopedia of Modern Murder 1962-1982. Bonanza Books. ISBN 978-0-517-66559-6. 

External links

• 1974 BBC news article describing the aftermath of the Birmingham pub bombings
• Contemporary BBC news article detailing the arrest of the Birmingham Six
• Contemporary BBC news article detailing the release of the Birmingham Six
• Justice for the 21: A website detailing the campaign by relatives of those killed in the Birmingham pub bombings for those responsible to be brought to trial
• Audio interview with Julie Hambleton detailing the resolve and obstacles the Justice for the 21 campaign has endured in their efforts to seek a fresh inquiry into the Birmingham pub bombings
• A personal account of the Birmingham pub bombings, written by a member of the West Midlands Fire Service
• 2013 Birmingham Mail article detailing the renovation of the memorial to the victims of the Birmingham pub bombings