Another year has passed, that’s 39 now, since the Birmingham Pub Bombings. The killers are still at large. At last there seems to be both momentum and a sufficient body of evidence for the criminal investigation to be re-opened.
It is said that the identities of the killers are known to those at the higher echelons of the IRA and to the British Government.
The two bombs exploded at The Mulberry Bush and The Tavern in the Town in the city centre. A telephone warning to the offices of The Birmingham Mail was given only minutes beforehand. 21 people killed and 182 injured, mostly young adults.
Shortly beforehand, five Irishmen bought train tickets to Heysham at the nearby New Street Station. They, together with another man who saw them off, were to become the Birmingham Six. They were travelling to Ireland to attend the funeral of James McDade, an IRA bomber who had accidentally blown himself up in Coventry.
The six men were arrested, confessions beaten out of them, flimsy forensic evidence concocted and they were jailed. Everybody cheered, justice had been done.
Only it hadn’t. It was a good old fashioned frame-up. The men weren’t saints, far from it. They were unemployed nuisances whose chief interest was drinking. Their faces fitted nicely, but they hadn’t the brains for it. They were freed on appeal in 1991. The police were discredited and several charged with perjury, but were never prosecuted.
Paddy Hill, one of the Six, says they know who the bombers were. Chris Mullin in his book Error of Judgement: The Truth About the Birmingham Pub Bombings claims to have met several of those responsible.
They are walking around among us, smug-faced. Old men with a secret they whisper and smile about. Probably in Dublin or Belfast, sipping a pint and having the craic.
Another year, how many more?
High time they were made to look into the eyes of the parents, brothers, sisters, lovers of those they blew away that night.
Back On The Rock 
interesting post and a reminder of recent history. I remember this, and the Guildford pub bomb well.
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Yes, Guildford is a bit closer to home for you Jenny. Such similarities with the aftermaths of these incidents. We’ve almost forgotten the constant bomb scares that we lived through in the 70s.
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I was talking to someone about this just this week. I was working in London from the mid seventies and bomb scares were virtually a daily occurrence. The company I worked for would issue a coded warning to alert staff to search their areas and report back to security who would then issue a coded all clear. This became part of our working lives – we learned not to use the tube stations, especially at rush hour, and to be mindful of other seemingly innocent coded warnings in other retail outlets should we be there at lunch times. The Harrods bomb brought the reality of our bomb scare drills home.
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Strangely I can’t recall such drills though I worked in Birmingham through much of the 70s. I do know that the Birmingham Mail alone (never mind the police and other media outlets) took literally hundreds of mostly hoax calls. It’s no wonder that they became almost routine and part of city life.
There’s a story of a third, unexploded bomb that same night. The bobby sent to investigate it poked it with his truncheon! The detonator, though not the bomb itself, went off minutes later when he’d been told to step away.
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I remember hearing about bombings in Ireland as I grew up. It seemed like such a scary place. (Glad I found out otherwise!)
Your recounting of these events was so compelling that I want to read more. If this story hasn’t already been documented as a true crime book, you should do it, Roy!
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I think Chris Mullins has done the book Julie. It was a horrible event. The atmosphere in the city the following morning was awful. How much worse for the bereaved, and those still living with the injuries while those responsible are happily swanning around.
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Well said, Roy! Your final sentence hammers the much-needed point home.
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Thank you Jean. I hope it’s not too late.
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Such an interesting post, Roy. Have you read Mullins book? I agree with Jean’s comment on your last sentence.
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Hello Jill, it probably seems so remote a matter for my Stateside friends but the scars still run deep. No, I’ve not read the book. I ought to though it’s been well picked over at this stage. I’m guessing that there will need to be deals in high places if any new investigation is going to produce the suspects.
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I suppose it depends on the individual, but I believe, this type of violence, that kills innocent people, is a world-wide issue that requires attention. It was interesting reading yours and Jenny’s personal experiences.
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Eh, how awful! Just the whole thing. To imagine how often this happens, where the real murderers get away with such brutality, the wrong people get blamed, and still there’s not justice for those who lost their lives.
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Yeah Britt, something very wrong. Plain incompetence at first, followed by the perceived need to get a result, then what is starting to feel like a cover up. It’s a wonder people have little confidence in ‘The Establishment’.
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Such a shame that a hames was made of the initial investigation. Of course those guilty should be charged. If, as you state, people in the higher echelons of government know the perpetrators, why the cover-up?
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If it’s the case the killers are known then I can only imagine it’s now a political question with it being much easier to let sleeping dogs lie. If however the police investigation throws up the names of likely suspects then it would be difficult to suppress. My guess is that, ultimately, nothing will be done.
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