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Ministers have decided against launching a open probe into the Provisional IRA's 1974-era Birmingham city pub explosions.

This Tragic Event

Back on 21 November 1974, 21 people were murdered and two hundred twenty wounded when explosive devices were exploded at the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town venues in Birmingham, in an assault widely believed to have been carried out by the Irish Republican Army.

Judicial Consequences

Not a single person has been found guilty over the bombings. Back in 1991, six defendants had their sentences overturned after spending more than 16 years in jail in what remains one of the most severe miscarriages of the legal system in UK history.

Victims' Families Push for Justice

Families have for decades campaigned for a open inquiry into the attacks to uncover what the authorities knew at the moment of the incident and why not a single person has been brought to justice.

Official Decision

The minister for security, Dan Jarvis, stated on Thursday that while he had sincere sympathy for the families, the government had decided “after careful deliberation” it would not authorize an inquiry.

Jarvis said the government thinks the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, established to examine deaths associated with the Northern Ireland conflict, could investigate the Birmingham attacks.

Advocates React

Campaigner Julie Hambleton, whose teenage sister Maxine was lost her life in the explosions, stated the decision showed “the government show no concern”.

The sixty-two-year-old has for decades campaigned for a national inquiry and stated she and other grieving families had “no plan” of taking part in the commission.

“There’s no real impartiality in the panel,” she stated, explaining it was “tantamount to them marking their own performance”.

Calls for Document Disclosure

For years, bereaved families have been demanding the release of papers from government bodies on the incident – specifically on what the state knew prior to and following the attack, and what proof there is that could bring about legal action.

“The whole state apparatus is resisting our families from ever discovering the truth,” she stated. “Solely a legally mandated judge-led national probe will give us access to the files they state they lack.”

Legal Authority

A official open probe has specific official capabilities, such as the authority to compel participants to attend and disclose details associated with the inquiry.

Previous Inquest

An inquest in 2019 – secured by grieving families – concluded the those killed were murdered by the IRA but failed to identify the identities of those accountable.

Hambleton said: “Government bodies advised the then coroner that they have zero documents or information on what is still the UK's longest unsolved atrocity of the 1900s, but currently they aim to force us to engage of this investigative body to provide details that they claim has not been present”.

Official Criticism

Liam Byrne, the MP for the local constituency, labeled the administration's decision as “extremely disheartening”.

In a announcement on social media, Byrne said: “After such a long period, so much grief, and so many failures” the relatives merit a procedure that is “autonomous, court-supervised, with comprehensive powers and courageous in the search for the facts.”

Continuing Sorrow

Discussing the families' ongoing sorrow, Hambleton, who leads the Justice 4 the 21, said: “No relative of any tragedy of any sort will ever have closure. It is impossible. The suffering and the sorrow remain.”