Birmingham pub bombings

For the bombing in 2001, see 2001 Birmingham bombing.

Birmingham pub bombings
Part of the Troubles
Aftermath of the explosion in the Mulberry Bush public house, which killed ten people.
LocationThe Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town public houses, Birmingham City Centre; and Barclays Bank, Edgbaston,
Birmingham, England
Date21 November 1974; 50 years ago (1974-11-21)
20:17 (Mulberry Bush)
20:27 (Tavern in the Town) (GMT)
TargetBar patrons
Attack type
Bombing, massacre, Irish Republican attack
WeaponTime bombs
Deaths21
Injured182
PerpetratorProvisional IRA

The Birmingham pub bombings were carried out on 21 November 1974, when bombs exploded in two public houses in Birmingham, England, killing 21 people and injuring 182 others.[1][2]

The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) never officially admitted responsibility for the Birmingham pub bombings,[3] although a former senior officer of the organisation confessed to their involvement in 2014.[4] In 2017, one of the alleged perpetrators, Michael Hayes, also claimed that the intention of the bombings had not been to harm civilians, and that their deaths had been caused by an unintentional delay in delivering an advance telephone warning to security services.[5][6]

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—maintained their innocence and insisted police had coerced them into signing false confessions through severe physical and psychological abuse. After 16 years in prison, and a lengthy campaign, their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory, and quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1991. The episode is seen as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history.[7]

The Birmingham pub bombings were one of the deadliest acts of the Troubles, and the deadliest act of terrorism to occur in England between the Second World War and the 2005 London bombings.[8][9][10]

  1. ^ "The Birmingham Bombings 40 Years On: What Can We Learn from IRA Terror?". The Telegraph. 21 November 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  2. ^ The First Miscarriage of Justice: The Unreported and Amazing Case of Tony Stock ISBN 978-1-909-97612-2 p. 150
  3. ^ "Birmingham Pub Blasts Kill 19". BBC News. 21 November 1974. Retrieved 15 August 2007.
  4. ^ "Told for the First Time: The Tragic Story of Young Victim Marilyn Paula Nash". The Birmingham Mail. 20 February 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  5. ^ Richards, Andy (9 December 2014). "Birmingham Pub Bombings: Ex-IRA Chief Admits 'We Did it – and I am Ashamed'". BirminghamLive.
  6. ^ "Birmingham Pub Bombings: Self-confessed IRA Bomb Maker Apologises for Blasts which Killed 21 People". The Independent. 10 July 2017. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  7. ^ "Birmingham Pub Bombings Will Not Resolve Enduring Injustice, Court Told". ITV News. 17 July 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  8. ^ "Grudging Justice in Britain". Kentucky New Era. 14 March 1991. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  9. ^ Walker, Clive (16 May 1992). The Prevention of Terrorism in British Law. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-719-03176-2 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ "Britain 'Defiant' as Bombers Kill 52 in Attack on the Heart of London". The Times. 8 July 2005. Archived from the original on 3 March 2007. Retrieved 23 November 2010.