View source for Birmingham pub bombings

{{for|the bombing in 2001|2001 Birmingham bombing}}
{{Short description|1974 IRA attack in England}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2015}}
{{Infobox terrorist attack
|title        = Birmingham pub bombings
|partof       = [[the Troubles]]
|image        = Mulberry bush pub bomb.jpg
|caption      = Aftermath of the explosion in the ''Mulberry Bush'' public house, which killed ten people.
|location     = The ''Mulberry Bush'' and ''Tavern in the Town'' [[Pub|public houses]], [[Birmingham City Centre]]; and Barclays Bank, [[Edgbaston]],<br />[[Birmingham]], England
|target       = Bar patrons
|date         = {{start date and age|1974|11|21|df=yes}}
|time         = 20:17 (Mulberry Bush)<br />20:27 (Tavern in the Town)
|timezone     = [[GMT]]
|weapon       = [[Time bomb]]s
|type         = [[Bombing]], [[massacre]], [[Physical force Irish Republicanism|Irish Republican attack]]
|fatalities   = 21
|injuries     = 182
|perpetrator  = [[Provisional IRA]]<!-- When there is substantial evidence of guilt and no credible independent sources that doubt guilt, denials by the suspects are no reason not to include -->}}

{{Campaignbox The Troubles in Britain and Europe|state=collapsed}}
The '''Birmingham pub bombings''' were carried out on 21 November 1974, when bombs exploded in two [[Pub|public houses]] in [[Birmingham]], England, killing 21 people and injuring 182 others.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11245150/The-Birmingham-bombings-40-years-on-what-can-we-learn-from-IRA-terror.html|title=The Birmingham Bombings 40 Years On: What Can We Learn from IRA Terror?|access-date=22 November 2018|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=21 November 2014}}</ref><ref>''The First Miscarriage of Justice: The Unreported and Amazing Case of Tony Stock'' {{ISBN|978-1-909-97612-2}} p. 150</ref>

The [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|Provisional IRA]] never officially admitted responsibility for the bombings,<ref name="BBC-1">{{cite news|title=Birmingham Pub Blasts Kill 19|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/21/newsid_2549000/2549953.stm|work=BBC News|date=21 November 1974|access-date=15 August 2007}}</ref> although a former senior officer of the organisation confessed to their involvement in 2014.<ref>{{cite news|title=Told for the First Time: The Tragic Story of Young Victim Marilyn Paula Nash|newspaper=The Birmingham Mail |date= 20 February 2017|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/told-first-time-tragic-story-12620490 |access-date= 2 April 2017}}</ref> In 2017, one of the [[allegation|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.<ref name="Birmingham Mail 9 December 2014">{{Cite web|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-pub-bombings-ex-ira-chief-8252395|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: Ex-IRA Chief Admits 'We Did it – and I am Ashamed'|first=Andy|last=Richards|date=9 December 2014|website=BirminghamLive}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/birmingham-pub-bombings-ira-bomb-maker-michael-christopher-hayes-innocent-people-blasts-a7834201.html|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: Self-confessed IRA Bomb Maker Apologises for Blasts which Killed 21 People|access-date=July 10, 2017|newspaper=The Independent|date=July 10, 2017}}</ref>

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 confession]]s through severe [[Physical abuse|physical]] and [[psychological abuse]]. After 16 years in prison, and a lengthy campaign, their [[conviction]]s were declared [[Unsafe conviction|unsafe]] and unsatisfactory, and quashed by the [[Court of Appeal of England and Wales#Criminal Division|Court of Appeal]] in 1991. The episode is seen as one of the worst [[Miscarriage of justice|miscarriages of justice]] in British legal history.<ref>{{cite news|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings Will Not Resolve Enduring Injustice, Court Told|url=https://www.itv.com/news/2018-07-17/birmingham-pub-bomb-inquests-will-not-resolve-enduring-injustice-court-told/|access-date=6 April 2019|newspaper=ITV News|date=17 July 2018}}</ref>

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 [[7 July 2005 London bombings|2005 London bombings]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Grudging Justice in Britain|date=14 March 1991|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=266&dat=19910314&id=1t0rAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gWQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3150,1815379&hl=en|publisher=[[Kentucky New Era]]|access-date=29 September 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HhcNAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA344|title=The Prevention of Terrorism in British Law|first=Clive|last=Walker|date=16 May 1992|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-719-03176-2|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title= Britain 'Defiant' as Bombers Kill 52 in Attack on the Heart of London|newspaper= The Times |date= 8 July 2005 |url= http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article541666.ece |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070303161158/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article541666.ece |url-status= dead |archive-date= 3 March 2007 |access-date= 23 November 2010}}</ref>

==Background==
{{main|Provisional Irish Republican Army campaign 1969–97#Attacks outside Northern Ireland}}
In 1973, the Provisional IRA extended its campaign to mainland Britain, attacking military and symbolically important targets to both increase pressure on the [[Government of the United Kingdom|British government]], via popular British opinion,<ref name="Armed Struggle p. 169">''Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA'' {{ISBN|978-0-195-17753-4}} p. 169</ref> to withdraw from [[Northern Ireland]],<ref>O'Day, Alan. ''Political Violence in Northern Ireland'' {{ISBN|978-0-275-95414-7}} p. 20</ref> and to maintain morale amongst their supporters.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1201738.stm|title=The IRA Campaigns in England|access-date=18 June 2021|work=BBC News|date=4 March 2001}}</ref> By 1974, mainland Britain saw an average of one attack—successful or otherwise—every three days.<ref>Gibson, Brian. ''The Birmingham Bombs'' {{ISBN|978-0-859-92070-4}} p. 50</ref> These attacks included five explosions which had occurred in Birmingham on 14 July, one of which had occurred at the [[Rotunda (Birmingham)|Rotunda]].<ref>Gibson, Brian. ''The Birmingham Bombs'' {{ISBN|978-0-859-92070-4}} p. 49</ref> Prior to any attack upon civilian targets, a [[code of conduct]] was followed in which the attacker or attackers would send an anonymous telephone warning to police, with the caller reciting a confidential [[Code word (communication)|code word]] known only to the Provisional IRA and to police, to indicate the authenticity of the threat.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-pub-bombings-phone-call-165528|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: The Phone Call to the Birmingham Mail that Warned of Terrorist Attack|first=Andy|last=Richards|date=21 November 2011|website=BirminghamLive}}</ref>

On 14 November, James McDade, a 28-year-old UK-based member of the Provisional IRA, was killed in a premature explosion as he attempted to plant a bomb at a telephone exchange and postal sorting office in [[Coventry]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Pub Bombings Appeal Will Question Forensic Evidence|date=3 November 1987 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19671103&id=wjY1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=NKYLAAAAIBAJ&pg=2751,341455&hl=en|publisher=[[The Glasgow Herald]]|access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> Another man, Raymond McLaughlin, was arrested near the scene; he was charged with unlawfully killing McDade and causing an explosion. The [[Republican movement (Ireland)|republican movement]] in England had planned to bury McDade in Birmingham, with a paramilitary [[guard of honour]].<ref name="Lost Lives p. 494">''Lost Lives'' {{ISBN|978-1-780-57649-7}} p. 494</ref> These plans were altered after the [[Home Secretary|British Home Secretary]] vowed that such a funeral, and any associated sympathy marches,<ref>{{cite news|title=Terrorist Bombs Kill 19, Wound 120 in England|date=22 November 1974|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1734&dat=19741122&id=fO0bAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3lEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3250,2495771&hl=en|publisher=[[The Dispatch]]|access-date=29 September 2021}}</ref> would be prevented.<ref name="Lost Lives p. 494"/> Councils in the [[West Midlands (region)|West Midlands]] chose to ban any processions linked to the death of McDade under the [[Public Order Act 1936]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Processions|work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1978/mar/10/processions|date=10 March 1978|access-date=15 June 2021}}</ref>

McDade's body was driven to [[Birmingham Airport]] and flown to Ireland on the afternoon of 21 November 1974. Initially, his body had been scheduled to be flown to [[Belfast International Airport|Belfast Airport]]; however, upon learning that staff at the airport had refused to handle the coffin,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/photographer-remembers-birmingham-pub-bombings-327869|title=Photographer Remembers Birmingham Pub Bombings: "It was Like the Blitz"|access-date=6 January 2017|newspaper=Birmingham Mail|publisher=The Birmingham Mail|date=22 November 2012}}</ref> McDade's body was instead flown to [[Dublin]]. All police leave was cancelled on this date, with an extra 1,300 officers drafted into Birmingham to quell any unrest as the hearse carrying McDade's coffin was driven to the airport.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/BRUM%27S+IRA+BOMBERS.-a0125055233|title=Brum's IRA Bombers: Free Online Library|website=thefreelibrary.com|date=21 November 2004|access-date=7 March 2017}}</ref> McDade's body was buried in [[Milltown Cemetery]] in [[Belfast]] on 23 November. According to a senior Provisional IRA figure, tensions within the Birmingham IRA unit were "running high" over the disrupted funeral arrangements for James McDade.<ref name="Birmingham Mail 9 December 2014"/>

==The bombings==
On the early evening of 21 November, at least three bombs connected to timing devices were planted inside two separate public houses and outside a bank located in and around [[Birmingham City Centre|central Birmingham]]. It is unknown precisely when these bombs were planted; if official IRA protocol of preceding attacks upon non-military installations with a 30-minute advance warning to security services was followed, and subsequent [[Eyewitness testimony|eyewitness accounts]] are accurate,<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 5">''Error of Judgement'' {{ISBN|978-1-853-71365-1}} p. 5</ref> the bombs would have been planted at these locations after 19:30 and before 19:47.

According to testimony delivered at the 1975 trial of the Birmingham Six, the bomb planted inside the ''Mulberry Bush'' was concealed inside either a duffel bag or briefcase,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-30039036|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: Lawyer Renews Call for Inquests|access-date=17 July 2017|date=14 November 2014|publisher=BBC News}}</ref> whereas the bomb planted inside the ''Tavern in the Town'' was concealed inside a briefcase or duffel bag (possibly concealed within a large, sealed plastic bag) and Christmas cracker boxes.<ref name="The Glasgow Herald 11 June 1975">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19750611&id=dZBAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6KQMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4667,2131125&hl=en|title=Bomb Trial Told of Boxes in Pub|access-date=22 November 2017|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|date=11 June 1975}}</ref><ref name="Error of Judgement p. 4"> ''Error of Judgement'' {{ISBN|978-1-853-71365-1}} p. 4</ref> The remnants of two alarm clocks recovered from the site of each explosion leaves the possibility that two bombs had been planted at each public house; the [[explosion crater]] at each location indicates that if two bombs had been planted at each public house, they would each have been placed in the same location and likely the same container.<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 2"> ''Error of Judgement'' {{ISBN|978-1-853-71365-1}} p. 2</ref>

Reportedly, those who planted these bombs then walked to a preselected phone box to telephone the advance warning to security services; however, the phone box had been vandalised, forcing the caller to find an alternative phone box and thus shortening the amount of time police had to clear the locations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.irishhistorian.com/People/PaddyHill.html|title=Paddy Hill and the Birmingham Six|website=irishhistorian.com|date=3 June 2011|access-date=29 September 2021}}</ref>
[[File:New Street -Birmingham -England.jpg|thumb|upright|[[New Street, Birmingham|New Street]] in central Birmingham facing the cylindrical [[Rotunda (Birmingham)|Rotunda]]. On the right are the sign and doorway of ''The Yard of Ale''; the premises formerly occupied by the ''Tavern in the Town'']]
At 20:11, an unknown man with a distinct [[Hiberno-English|Irish accent]] telephoned the ''[[Birmingham Post]]'' newspaper. The call was answered by operator Ian Cropper. This caller said: "There is a bomb planted in the Rotunda and there is a bomb in [[New Street, Birmingham|New Street]] at the tax office. This is Double X", before terminating the call. ("Double X" was an IRA code word given to authenticate any warning call.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn= 1-85371-090-3|page=1|chapter=Chapter 1}}</ref>) A similar warning was also sent to the ''[[Birmingham Mail|Birmingham Evening Mail]]'' newspaper, with the anonymous caller(s) again giving the code word, but again failing to name the public houses in which the bombs had been planted.<ref name="Birmingham Mail 9 December 2014"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Dillon|first=Martin|author-link=Martin Dillon|title=25 Years of Terror: The IRA's war against the British|publisher=[[Bantam Books]]|year=1996|page=188|isbn=0-553-40773-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/the-man-who-spoke-to-a-birmingham-pub-327901|title=The Man who Spoke to a Birmingham Pub Bomber: A Voice Calm, Collected and Full of Hatred|access-date=28 September 2021|newspaper=[[The Birmingham Mail]]|date=22 November 2012}}</ref>

===Mulberry Bush===
The Rotunda is a 25-storey office block, built in the 1960s, that housed the ''Mulberry Bush'' pub on its lower two floors.<ref name="lostlives">McKittrick, David. ''Lost Lives'' {{ISBN|978-1-780-57649-7}} pp. 497–98</ref> Within minutes of the warning, police arrived and began checking the upper floors of the Rotunda, but they did not have sufficient time to clear the crowded pub at street level. At 20:17, six minutes after the first telephone warning had been delivered to the ''Birmingham Post'', the bomb—which had been concealed inside either a duffel bag or briefcase located close to the rear entrance to the premises—exploded, devastating the pub.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn=1-85371-090-3|pages=1–2|chapter=Chapter 1}}</ref> The explosion blew a 40-inch (100&nbsp;cm) crater in the concrete floor, collapsing part of the roof and trapping many casualties beneath girders and concrete blocks. Many buildings near the Rotunda were also damaged, and pedestrians in the street were struck by flying glass from shattered windows. Several of the victims died at the scene, including two youths who had been walking past the premises at the moment of the explosion.<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 2"/>

Ten people were killed in this explosion and dozens were injured, including many who lost [[Limb (anatomy)|limbs]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250553864|title=Irishmen in Court on Pub Bomb Blasts|access-date=28 September 2021|newspaper=[[Papua New Guinea Post-Courier]]|date=26 November 1974}}</ref> Several casualties had been impaled by sections of wooden furniture;<ref>{{cite news|title=Birmingham Bombings: City Still Struggling to Cope 40 Years On|date=21 November 2014|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/birmingham-bombings-city-still-struggling-to-cope-40-years-on-1.2009500|first=Mark|last=Hennessy|publisher=[[The Irish Times]]|access-date=29 September 2021}}</ref> others had their clothes burned from their bodies. A paramedic called to the scene of this explosion later described the carnage as being reminiscent of a slaughterhouse; one fireman said that, upon seeing a writhing, "screaming torso", he had begged police to allow a television crew inside the premises to film the dead and dying at the scene, in the hope the IRA would see the consequences of their actions; however, the police refused this request, fearing the reprisals would be extreme.<ref name="Sun p. 168">''Seasons in the Sun: The Battle for Britain, 1974–1979'' {{ISBN|978-0-141-03216-0}} p. 168</ref>

One of those injured was 21-year-old Maureen Carlin, who had such extensive [[Fragmentation (weaponry)|shrapnel]] wounds to her stomach and bowel she told her fiancé, Ian Lord (himself badly wounded in the explosion): "If I die, just remember I love you".<ref name="Birmingham Mail 22 November 2014">{{Cite web|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-pub-bombings-minute-minute-8053231|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings Minute by Minute: 24 Hours That Changed our City Forever|first=Andy|last=Richards|date=22 November 2014|website=BirminghamLive}}</ref> Carlin was given the [[last rites]], with surgeons initially doubtful she would live, although she recovered from her injuries.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/news/local-news/day-birmingham-felt-full-force-3937392|title=The Day Birmingham Felt the Full Force of IRA Terrorism|access-date=February 11, 2017|newspaper=The Birmingham Post|date=November 20, 2009}}</ref>

===Tavern in the Town===
The ''Tavern in the Town'' was a basement pub on New Street located a short distance<ref>''Encyclopedia of Terrorism, Volume 1'' {{ISBN|978-0-313-38535-3}} p. 125</ref> from the Rotunda and directly beneath the New Street Tax Office.<ref name="BBC-1"/> Patrons there had heard the explosion at the ''Mulberry Bush'',<ref>McKittrick, David. ''Lost Lives'' {{ISBN|978-1-780-57649-7}} p. 497</ref> but did not believe that the sound (described by one survivor as a "muffled thump"<ref>''Seasons in the Sun: The Battle for Britain, 1974–1979'' {{ISBN|978-0-141-03216-0}} p. 166</ref>) was an explosion.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-30138670|title='I Could Hear People Crying for Help'|access-date=18 June 2021|work=BBC News|date=20 November 2014}}</ref>

Police had begun attempting to clear the ''Tavern in the Town'' when, at 20:27, a second bomb exploded there. The blast was so powerful that several victims were blown through a brick wall. Their remains were wedged between the rubble and live underground electric cables that supplied the city centre.<ref name="fireman">[http://birmingham999.co.uk/ ''The Birmingham Pub Bombings, 21 November 1974. A Personal Account by Alan Stuart Hill] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515122810/http://birmingham999.co.uk/ |date=15 May 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/birmingham-cannot-forget-carnage-of-1974-bombings-1.2010372|title=Birmingham Cannot Forget Carnage of 1974 Bombings|access-date=21 July 2017|newspaper=Irish Times|date=21 November 2014}}</ref> One of the first police officers on the scene, Brian Yates, later testified that the scene which greeted his eyes was "absolutely dreadful", with several of the dead stacked upon one another, others strewn about the ruined pub,<ref name="BBC-1"/> and several screaming survivors staggering aimlessly amongst the debris, rubble,<ref name="The Glasgow Herald 11 June 1975"/> and severed limbs.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/service-held-for-pub-bombs-victims-30765274.html|title=Service Held for Pub Bombs' Victims|access-date=29 September 2021|newspaper=[[Belfast Telegraph]]|date=22 November 2014}}</ref> A survivor said the sound of the explosion was replaced by a "deafening silence" and the smell of burnt flesh.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.itv.com/news/central/2014-11-21/miracle-escape-from-birmingham-pub-bombings-a-survivors-story-when-terror-struck-the-tavern-in-the-town/|title=Miracle Escape from Birmingham Pub Bombings: A Survivor's Story when Terror Struck the Tavern in the Town|access-date=29 September 2021|publisher=[[ITV News]]|date=21 November 2014}}</ref>

Rescue efforts at the ''Tavern in the Town'' were initially hampered as the bomb had been placed at the base of a set of stairs descending from the street which had been destroyed in the explosion,<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 4"/> and the premises had been accessible solely via this entrance. The victims whose bodies had been blown through a brick wall and wedged between the rubble and underground electric cables took up to three hours to recover, as recovery operations were delayed until the power could be [[galvanic isolation|isolated]].<ref name="Birmingham Mail 22 November 2014"/> A passing West Midlands bus was also destroyed in the blast.<ref name="mercury09">{{cite news|url=http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2009/11/22/david-cameron-says-new-birmingham-pub-bombings-probe-unlikely-66331-25223524|title=David Cameron Says New Birmingham Pub Bombings Probe Unlikely|access-date=16 January 2017|newspaper=[[Sunday Mercury|The Sunday Mercury]]|date=22 November 2009}}</ref>

This bomb killed nine people outright, and injured everyone in the pub—many severely;<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/birmingham-pub-bombings-38-years-325322|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings Survivor Tells His Story 38 Years to the Day After IRA Attack|first=Carl|last=Chinn|date=21 November 2012|website=BirminghamLive}}</ref> two later died of their injuries: 28-year-old barman Thomas Chaytor on 28 November,<ref>McKittrick, ''Lost Lives''. {{ISBN|978-1-780-57649-7}} p. 504</ref> and 34-year-old James Craig on 10 December.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=sdYcw7Zs3W4C&dq=Inan+Bashir+John+Jeffries&pg=PA1389 ''Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles'' (pp. 504–05)], google.com; accessed 11 February 2017.</ref>
After the second explosion, police [[Emergency evacuation|evacuated]] all pubs and businesses in Birmingham city centre and commandeered all available rooms in the nearby City Centre Hotel as an impromptu first-aid post.<ref name="lostlives"/> All bus services into the city centre were halted, and taxi drivers were encouraged to transport those lightly injured in the explosions to hospital.<ref name="lostlives"/> Prior to the arrival of ambulances, rescue workers removed critically injured casualties from each scene upon makeshift stretchers constructed from devices such as tabletops and wooden planks. These severely injured casualties would be placed on the pavement and given [[first aid]] prior to the arrival of ambulance services.<ref name="fireman"/>

===Hagley Road===
At 21:15, a third bomb, concealed inside two plastic bags, was found in the doorway of a Barclays Bank on Hagley Road, approximately two miles from the site of the first two explosions. This device consisted of {{convert|13.5|lb}}<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 5"/> of [[Frangex]] connected to a [[timer]], and was set to detonate at 23:00.<ref>{{cite news|title=Family Appeal to Find 'Third Birmingham Pub Bomb'|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-25126142|access-date=30 September 2021|work=[[BBC News]]|date=27 November 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: 'Missing' Third Bomb Could Help Find Mass Murderer|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/justice-21-birmingham-pub-bombings-5789181|last=Lockley|first=Michael|access-date=30 September 2021|work=[[Birmingham Mail]]|date=27 August 2013}}</ref> The [[detonator]] to this device activated when a policeman prodded the bags with his truncheon, but the bomb did not explode.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn= 1-85371-090-3|page=5|chapter=Chapter 1}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Third Explosive on Night of Birmingham Pub Bombings Proved Real Culprits Got Away|newspaper=The Birmingham Mail|date=24 November 2013|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/third-explosive-found-night-birmingham-6335676|access-date=6 April 2017}}</ref> The device was destroyed in a [[controlled explosion]] early the following morning.<ref name="Express & Star. 21 November 2014">{{cite news|title=40 Years On and No Justice for Birmingham Pub Bombing Victims|newspaper=[[Express & Star]]|date=21 November 2014|url=https://www.expressandstar.com/news/2014/11/21/40-years-on-and-no-justice-for-the-birmingham-pub-bombings-victims/victim-4|access-date=6 April 2017|archive-date=15 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160215050949/http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2014/11/21/40-years-on-and-no-justice-for-the-birmingham-pub-bombings-victims/victim-4/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Fatalities===
Altogether, 21 people were killed and 182 injured in the Birmingham pub bombings, making them the deadliest terrorist attack in mainland Britain during the Troubles.<ref name="Cain Events: Birmingham">{{Cite web|url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/other/1974/faul76.htm|title=The Birmingham Framework: Fr. Denis Faul and Fr. Raymond Murray (1976): Six Innocent Men Framed for the Birmingham Bombings|date=1 January 2009|access-date=30 September 2021|website=cain.ulster.ac.uk}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2017/1206/925430-birmingham-pub-bomb-case/|title=Court Told No Full Investigation Into 1974 Birmingham Bombings|access-date=27 November 2018|newspaper=[[RTÉ News and Current Affairs]]|date=6 December 2017}}</ref> Residents of Birmingham have referred to the Birmingham pub bombings as the "darkest day" in their city's history.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/news-opinion/what-lessons-can-learn-birmingham-8145552|title=What Lessons Can We Learn from the Birmingham Pub Bombings?|access-date=29 September 2021|newspaper=[[Birmingham Mail]]|date=21 November 2014}}</ref>

Many of those wounded were left permanently disabled, including one young man who lost both legs, and a young woman who was blinded by shrapnel. The majority of the dead and wounded were between the ages of 17 and 30,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=sdYcw7Zs3W4C&q=Lost+Lives:+The+Stories+of+the+Men,+Women+and+Children+who+Died+as+a+Result+of+the+Northern+Ireland+Troubles ''Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women, and Children Who Died As a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles''] {{ISBN|978-1-780-57649-7}} pp. 496–500.</ref> including a young couple on their first date, a young woman whose boyfriend had intended to propose to her on the evening of her death,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.burytimes.co.uk/news/national/18881023.birmingham-pub-bombing-victims/|title=The Birmingham Pub Bombing Victims|access-date=3 December 2020|newspaper=The Bury Times|date=18 November 2020}}</ref> and two Irishmen, brothers Desmond and Eugene Reilly (aged 21 and 23 respectively).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-47389721|title=Pub Bombings: Brothers Killed Celebrating Pregnancy |publisher=BBC News |date=27 February 2019 |access-date=10 March 2021}}</ref> The widow of Desmond Reilly gave birth to his first child four months after his death.<ref name="McKittrick, David p. 500">McKittrick, David. ''Lost Lives'' {{ISBN|978-1-780-57649-7}} p. 500</ref> One of the victims, 18-year-old Maxine Hambleton, had only entered the ''Tavern in the Town'' to hand out tickets to friends for her housewarming party. She was killed seconds after entering the pub and had been standing directly beside the bomb when it exploded, killing her instantly. Her friend, 17-year-old Jane Davis, was one of two 17-year-olds killed in the bombings, and had entered the ''Tavern in the Town'' to view holiday photographs she had developed that afternoon.<ref name="Lost Lives p. 494"/><ref name="chadwichmail">{{cite news|url=https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/family-of-teenager-killed-in-birmingham-pub-83923|title=Family of Teenager Killed in Birmingham Pub Bombings in 1974 'Insulted' by Plans for Compensation|access-date=3 February 2012|newspaper=Birmingham Mail|date=3 February 2009}}</ref><ref>''Lost Lives'' {{ISBN|978-1-780-57649-7}} pp. 496–500</ref>

==Initial reaction==
The bombings stoked considerable [[anti-Irish sentiment]] in Birmingham, which then had an [[Irish migration to Great Britain|Irish community]] of 100,000. Irish people were ostracised from public places and subjected to physical assaults,<ref name="lostlives"/><ref name="sydney">{{cite news|title=Every Briton Now a Target for Death|newspaper=[[Sydney Morning Herald]]|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZXxXAAAAIBAJ&pg=1156%2C450835|date=1 December 1974|access-date=15 June 2016}}</ref> verbal abuse and death threats.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Irish in Birmingham: 40 Years On from the Birmingham Pub Bombings|newspaper=[[The Irish Post]]|url=http://www.irishpost.co.uk/news/irish-birmingham-40-years-birmingham-bombings|date=21 November 2014|access-date=30 September 2021|archive-date=25 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150325012436/http://www.irishpost.co.uk/news/irish-birmingham-40-years-birmingham-bombings|url-status=dead}}</ref> Both in Birmingham and across England,<ref name="lostlives"/> Irish homes, pubs, businesses and community centres were attacked, in some cases with firebombs. Staff at thirty factories across [[the Midlands]] went on strike in protest at the bombings, while workers at airports across England refused to handle flights bound for Ireland.<ref name="lostlives"/> Bridget Reilly, the mother of the two Irish brothers killed in the ''Tavern in the Town'' explosion, was herself refused service in local shops.<ref name="McKittrick, David p. 500"/>

The bombings were immediately blamed on the IRA,<ref name="BBC-1"/> despite the organisation not having claimed responsibility.<ref name="Heralded 1974">{{cite news|title=War on IRA: 'Every Briton Now a Target'|date=1 December 1974|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZXxXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UvEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1156,450835&hl=en|publisher=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]|access-date=29 September 2021}}</ref> Due to anger against Irish people in Birmingham after the bombings, the IRA's Army Council placed the city "strictly off-limits" to IRA [[active service unit]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/WAR+ON+TERROR%3A+REAL+IRA+BLAST%3A+SO+NEAR+..SO+LUCKY%3B+City+centre+bomb...-a079729513|title=War On Terror: Real IRA Blast. City Centre Bomb Could Have Killed 100s|last=Chaytor|first=Rod|publisher=thefreelibrary.com |date=5 November 2001|access-date=30 September 2021}}</ref> In Northern Ireland, [[Ulster loyalism|loyalist paramilitaries]] launched a wave of revenge attacks on [[Irish Catholic]]s: within two days of the bombings, five Catholic civilians had been shot dead by [[Loyalism|loyalists]].<ref>McKittrick, ''Lost Lives'' {{ISBN|978-1-780-57649-7}} pp. 501–02.</ref>

===First IRA statement===
Two days after the bombings, the Provisional IRA issued a statement in which they denied any responsibility. This statement stressed that a detailed internal investigation was underway to determine the possibility of any rogue members' involvement,<ref name="Cain Events: Birmingham"/> although the Provisional IRA emphasised that the [[methodology]] of the attacks contradicted the official IRA code of conduct when attacking non-military targets, whereby adequate warnings would be sent to security services to ensure the safety of civilians.<ref name=cainchron/><ref name=robertwhite>White, Robert W. ''Ruairí Ó Brádaigh: The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary'' {{ISBN|978-0-253-34708-4}} pp. 221; 381.</ref> [[Ruairí Ó Brádaigh]], then-president of [[Sinn Féin]], conducted an internal investigation which, he stated, confirmed the bombings had not been sanctioned by the IRA leadership.<ref name=robertwhite/>

The Provisional IRA never officially admitted responsibility for the Birmingham pub bombings.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/30/former-top-ira-official-questioned-over-1974-birmingham-six-pub-bombings|title=Former Top IRA Official Questioned over Birmingham Pub Bombings|access-date=11 February 2017|work=The Guardian|date=30 January 2016}}</ref>

===Prevention of Terrorism Act===
Within four days of the bombings, [[Roy Jenkins]], the Home Secretary, announced that the Irish Republican Army was to be [[proscription|proscribed]] within the UK.<ref name="cainchron">{{cite web|url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch74.htm#Nov |title=CAIN Web Service: A Chronology of the Conflict: 1974|date=8 August 2021|access-date=1 October 2021}}</ref> Two days later, on 27 November, Jenkins introduced the [[Prevention of Terrorism Acts|Prevention of Terrorism Act 1974]], which granted the police in mainland Britain the right to arrest, detain, and question people for up to seven days if they were suspected of the commission or preparation of an act of [[terrorism]] on the British mainland, and their subsequent [[deportation]] to either Northern Ireland or the [[Republic of Ireland]] if culpability was proven. Jenkins later described the measures of this Act as being "draconian measures unprecedented in peacetime".<ref name=cainchron/>

In response to public pressure, a separate debate within the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] as to whether those convicted of terrorist offences should face the death penalty was held on 11 December 1974. This motion drew the support of more than 200 MPs,<ref>{{cite news|title=Britain Rejects Hanging Bid|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19741212&id=NTwzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vTgHAAAAIBAJ&pg=1713,4620752&hl=en|access-date=1 October 2021|newspaper=[[Bangor Daily News]]|date=12 December 1974}}</ref> although the majority of those in Parliament voted against the restoration of the death penalty,<ref>''Roy Jenkins; a Well-Rounded Life'' {{ISBN|978-0-224-08750-6}} p. 427.</ref> reportedly in part due to fear that such a move could have encouraged the IRA to use children to plant bombs.<ref name="Sydney Morning Herald 1 December 1974">{{cite news|title=Every Briton Now a Target for Death|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZXxXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UvEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1156,450835&hl=en|access-date=31 May 2020|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=1 December 1974}}</ref>

The Prevention of Terrorism Act became law on 29 November,<ref name=cainchron/> and remained in force until superseded by the [[Terrorism Act 2000|Terrorism Act]] in July 2000.<ref name="lostlives"/><ref name="cainchron"/><ref>''Encyclopedia of Terrorism, Volume 1'' {{ISBN|978-1-563-24806-1}} p. 125</ref>

===Forensic analysis===
An analysis of the remnants of the bombs placed at the ''Mulberry Bush'' and the ''Tavern in the Town'' revealed these devices had been constructed in a similar manner to the bomb placed at Hagley Road. Each bomb placed inside the public houses would have weighed between 25 and 30&nbsp;lbs,<ref name="Sun p. 168"/> and had contained numerous shards of metal.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/irish_news/arts2004/nov23_survivors_recall_bombings.php|title=Survivors of Birmingham Bombings Recall Tragedy|publisher=nuzhound.com|date=22 November 2004|access-date=3 October 2016|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233830/http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/irish_news/arts2004/nov23_survivors_recall_bombings.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> The forensic analyst was able to state that the construction of these devices was very similar to that of seven other bombs and [[incendiary device]]s discovered at various locations in Birmingham, Coventry and [[Wolverhampton]] in the 16 days prior to the Birmingham pub bombings,<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 5"/> and that the explosive material used to construct the bomb discovered at Hagley Road was of a brand solely manufactured in the Republic of Ireland which could not legally be imported into Britain. All these factors led the explosives expert to conclude that all three bombs had been manufactured by the same people, and that it was likely that whoever had constructed these bombs had also committed previous IRA attacks.<ref name="BBC-1"/><ref name="miscarriagesofjustice.org">{{Cite web|url=http://www.miscarriagesofjustice.org/case-files/archive/legal/appeal-judgments/birmingham-six-appeal-court-judgment|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518082228/http://www.miscarriagesofjustice.org/case-files/archive/legal/appeal-judgments/birmingham-six-appeal-court-judgment|url-status=dead|title=Miscarriages of Justice:R v. McIlkenny and Others|archivedate=18 May 2015}}</ref> This conclusion was further supported by the methodology of the attacks, and the official IRA code word given to the ''Birmingham Evening Mail'' and ''Birmingham Post'' newspapers minutes before the explosions.

==The Birmingham Six==
{{Details|Birmingham Six}}
===Arrest===
At 19:55 on 21 November (scarcely 20 minutes before the first bomb had exploded), five men—Patrick Hill, Gerard Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker—had boarded a train at [[Birmingham New Street railway station|Birmingham New Street station]]. These men—who, alongside Hugh Callaghan, would become known as the "Birmingham Six"<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/S/0128/S.0128.199103150004.html|journal=[[Seanad Éireann]]|volume=128|date=15 March 1991|title=Release of Birmingham Six: Statements|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607092216/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/S/0128/S.0128.199103150004.html|archive-date=7 June 2011|df=dmy-all}}</ref>—were originally from Northern Ireland. Five of the Birmingham Six hailed from Belfast, whereas John Walker had lived in [[Derry]] until age 16. All six men had lived in Birmingham for between 11 and 27 years respectively and, although they had known James McDade and/or his family to varying degrees,<ref name="lostlives"/><ref name="news.google.com">{{cite news|title=Court Rekindles Memories of Carnage When 21 Died|date=29 January 1988|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19880129&id=YzpAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UlkMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3051,6479874&hl=en|access-date=27 June 2016|work=[[The Glasgow Herald]]}}</ref> each man was adamant they had not known of his IRA affiliations.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn=1-85371-090-3|page=12|chapter=Chapter 2}}</ref>

When the bombs exploded, the booking clerk from whom the men had purchased tickets informed police that a man with an Irish accent, dressed in a dust-covered purple suit, had purchased a ticket to travel to the coastal village of [[Heysham]], en route to Belfast. The man had then run onto the train. A spot check on ticket sales that evening revealed that four further tickets to travel to Belfast via Heysham had also been issued.<ref>{{cite news|title=Hurd Refers Pub Bombing Cases to the Appeal Court|date=21 January 1987|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19870121&id=YaNAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=k6UMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3670,3959618&hl=e|access-date=26 June 2016|work=[[The Glasgow Herald]]}}</ref> Within three hours of the bombings, each man had been detained at [[Heysham Port]] and taken to [[Morecambe]] police station to undergo forensic tests to eliminate them as suspects in the bombings. Each man expressed their willingness to assist in these inquiries, having informed the officers of a [[half-truth]] as to the reason they had been travelling to Belfast: that they intended to visit their families, although they also intended to attend McDade's funeral.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn=1-85371-090-3|page=14|chapter=Chapter 3}}</ref>

Between 03:00 and 06:10<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn= 1-85371-090-3|page=44|chapter=Chapter 8}}</ref> the following morning, [[forensic scientist]] [[Frank Skuse]]<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 35">''Error of Judgement'' {{ISBN|978-1-853-71365-1}} p. 35</ref> conducted a series of [[Griess test]]s upon the hands, fingernails and belongings of the five men arrested at Heysham Port, to determine whether any of the men had handled the explosive [[nitroglycerine]]. He concluded with a 99% degree of certainty that both Patrick Hill and William Power had handled explosives,<ref>{{cite news|title=Law Report: Scientist Defamed: Skuse v Granada Television. Court of Appeal (Sir Thomas Bingham, Master of the Rolls, Lord Justice Beldam and Lord Justice Kennedy), 30 March 1993|last=Tan|first=Ying Hui|date=2 April 1993|access-date=1 October 2021|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/law-report-scientist-defamed-skuse-v-granada-television-court-of-appeal-sir-thomas-bingham-master-of-the-rolls-lord-justice-beldam-and-lord-justice-kennedy-30-march-1993-1452874.html|work=[[The Independent]]}}</ref> and remained uncertain as to the test results conducted on John Walker, whose right hand had tested positive, but whose left hand had tested negative.<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 165"> ''Error of Judgement'' {{ISBN|978-1-853-71365-1}} p. 165</ref> The test results upon Hunter and McIlkenny had been negative.<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 165"/>

Each man was ordered to change his clothes. A search of Walker's possessions revealed several [[holy card|mass cards]] printed in reference to the upcoming funeral of James McDade.<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 59"> ''Error of Judgement'' {{ISBN|978-1-853-71365-1}} p. 59</ref> Upon discovering these mass cards, two officers led Walker into an adjacent room, where he was repeatedly punched, kicked and, later, burned with a lit cigarette<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn=1-85371-090-3|page=60|chapter=Chapter 10}}</ref> by three officers as his arms were restrained by the two policemen who had escorted him into the room. Similar assaults were committed upon Power, Hunter, Hill and, to a lesser degree, McIlkenny;<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn=1-85371-090-3|page=64|chapter=Chapter 10}}</ref> the officers who administered these beatings took great care to avoid marking the men's faces.<ref name="cain.ulster.ac.uk">{{cite web|url=http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/other/1974/faul76.htm|title=The Birmingham Framework' by Fr. Denis Faul and Fr. Raymond Murray (1976)|publisher=cain.ulster.ac.uk|date=2 August 2016|access-date=11 February 2017}}</ref>

At 12:55 on the afternoon of 22 November, while detained at Morecambe police station, William Power signed a confession admitting his involvement in the Birmingham pub bombings. This confession was extracted after Power had been subjected to extreme physical and psychological abuse, which included repeated kicking in the stomach, head and legs, dragging by the hair, and the stretching of his scrotum.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn=1-85371-090-3|page=53|chapter=Chapter 9}}</ref>

====False confessions====
The five men were transferred to the custody of the [[West Midlands Serious Crime Squad]] on the afternoon of 22 November.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn= 1-85371-090-3|page=54|chapter=Chapter 9}}</ref> At 22:45 that evening, Hugh Callaghan was arrested at his home in Birmingham and driven to [[Sutton Coldfield]] police station, where he was briefly questioned before being detained in a cell overnight, but intentionally denied sleep.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn=1-85371-090-3|page=80|chapter=Chapter 13}}</ref> The same evening Callaghan was arrested, the homes of all six men were extensively—and unsuccessfully—searched for explosives and explosive material.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.innocent.org.uk/cases/birmingham6/birmingham6.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192223/http://www.innocent.org.uk/cases/birmingham6/birmingham6.pdf|url-status=usurped|title=The Birmingham Pub Bombings: People Involved in the Case|date=29 June 2004|access-date=2 October 2021|archivedate=4 March 2016}}</ref>

Following their transfer to the custody of the West Midlands Crime Squad, three other members of the Birmingham Six (Callaghan, McIlkenny and Walker) signed false confessions on 23 November. In these three further false statements obtained by the West Midlands Crime Squad, Callaghan, McIlkenny and Walker each falsely claimed to be members of the IRA; to have conspired with McDade to cause explosions prior to his death; and to have planted the bombs at the ''Mulberry Bush'' and the ''Tavern in the Town'' public houses. As had been the case with William Power while detained at Morecambe police station, the three men later claimed that, before and during their transfer to Birmingham, officers had coerced them into signing these confessions through severe physical, psychological and emotional abuse. This mistreatment included beatings, deprivation of food and sleep, being subject to mock executions, intimidation, being burned with lit cigarettes,<ref name="Express & Star. 21 November 2014"/> and being forced to stand or squat in various [[stress position]]s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn= 1-85371-090-3|page=72|chapter=Chapter 11}}</ref> In addition, each man had heard threats directed against their families.<ref name=framework>Denis Faul & Raymond Murray (1976) [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/other/1974/faul76.htm Extract from ''The Birmingham Framework''], cain.ulst.ac.uk; accessed 21 June 2017.</ref> Hill and Hunter both claimed they had been subject to the same mistreatment, and although both men had refused to sign false confessions, police later claimed that both men had verbally confessed their guilt.<ref>''Error of Judgment'' {{ISBN|978-1-853-71365-1}} pp. 83–85</ref> On 24 November, each man was initially charged with the murder of 17-year-old Jane Davis, who had been killed in the ''Tavern in the Town'' explosion.<ref>{{cite news|title=BBC News On This Day in 1974: Six Charged Over Birmingham Pub Bombs|date=24 November 2008|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/24/newsid_2546000/2546983.stm|publisher=BBC News|access-date=8 September 2018}}</ref> All six were remanded in custody at [[HM Prison Birmingham|Winson Green Prison]], and they were only assigned [[solicitor]]s the following day.<ref name="Cain Events: Birmingham"/>

Inside Winson Green Prison, all six men were subject to the same mistreatment at the hands of prison officers as they had endured at the hands of police, with one of the men losing four teeth in one assault. At a further court hearing on 28 November, each man was observed to have extensive facial injuries; an examination by a prison doctor revealed each man had received extensive injuries not only to their faces, but across their bodies. (Following an independent investigation into this mistreatment, the British [[Director of Public Prosecutions]] recommended that 14 prison warders be charged with assault. These men were suspended from duty in December 1975; all 14 were found not guilty of 90 separate charges of misconduct and assault on 15 July 1976.<ref name="cain.ulster.ac.uk"/>)

====Second IRA statement====
[[Dáithí Ó Conaill]], then a member of the Provisional IRA's Army Council, had four days before the Birmingham pub bombings issued a statement declaring that the "consequences of war" would incessantly be felt not only in Northern Ireland, but on the British mainland, until the British government announced their intentions to "disengage from Ireland".<ref name="Armed Struggle p. 169"/> One week after the Birmingham Six had been charged with the murder of Jane Davis, Ó Conaill issued a further statement emphasising that none of the Birmingham Six had ever been members of the IRA. Ó Conaill further stated:<ref name="montreal">{{cite news|title=Two-for-one Reprisal Vowed for Each IRA Member Hanged|date=12 December 1974|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4pAjAAAAIBAJ&pg=974%2C2948003|access-date=27 June 2016|work=[[The Gazette (Montreal)|The Gazette]]}}</ref>

{{quote|If IRA members had carried-out such attacks, they would be [[court-martial]]led 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.}}

====Committal hearing====
At a committal hearing in May 1975, each man was formally charged with 21 counts of murder, with additional charges of [[Conspiracy (criminal)|conspiracy]] to cause explosions. Due to the wave of public outrage towards the perpetrators of the Birmingham pub bombings within the Midlands, Mr Justice [[Nigel Bridge, Baron Bridge of Harwich|Bridge]] conceded to defence motions to move the trial away from the Midlands, and the trial was set to be heard within the Shire Hall and [[Crown Court]] of [[Lancaster Castle]]<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 156"> ''Error of Judgement'' {{ISBN|978-1-853-71365-1}} p. 156</ref> the following month. Also to stand trial with the Birmingham Six were three men: [[Mick Murray (Irish republican)|Mick Murray]] (a known member of the Provisional IRA who had previously been convicted of a separate charge of conspiracy to cause explosions), James Francis Gavin (a.k.a. James Kelly, who had likewise been tried alongside the Birmingham Six and convicted of the possession of explosives), who had allegedly constructed each of the bombs, and Michael Sheehan. Murray was also charged with conspiracy to cause explosions across the Midlands, with Kelly and Sheehan charged with possession of explosives.<ref name="birminghammail.co.uk">{{cite news|last=Richards|first=Andrew|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: We Name the Man Who Masterminded the Atrocity|date=21 November 2014|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-pub-bombings-name-man-8141604|access-date=27 June 2017|work=[[Birmingham Mail]]}}</ref>

Prior to the trial, defence lawyers for the Birmingham Six applied for their clients to be tried separately from Sheehan, Kelly and, particularly, Murray, stating that their clients' presumptions of innocence and denials of association with the IRA would be tainted if they were tried alongside an admitted member of the Provisional IRA, who had been convicted of causing explosions. This application was rejected by Mr Justice Bridge, who was to preside over the trial.<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 159">''Error of Judgement'' {{ISBN|978-1-853-71365-1}} p. 159</ref>

===Trial===
[[File:Shire Hall, Lancaster Castle - geograph.org.uk - 1600008.jpg|thumb|The Shire Hall and [[Crown Court]] of [[Lancaster Castle]]. The Birmingham Six were tried at this location in 1975.<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 156"/>]]

On 9 June 1975, the Birmingham Six stood trial at Lancaster Crown Court before Mr Justice Bridge. Each man was charged with 21 counts of murder<ref name="west-midlands police.co.uk">{{cite web|url=http://www.west-midlands.police.uk/docs/latest-news/2014-07-04-birmingham-pub-bombings-presentation.pdf|title=West Midlands Police: The Birmingham Pub Bombings|via=west-midlands.police.uk|access-date=5 May 2015|archive-date=5 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150505040644/http://www.west-midlands.police.uk/docs/latest-news/2014-07-04-birmingham-pub-bombings-presentation.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> and conspiring with the deceased James McDade to cause explosions across the Midlands between August and November 1974.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bomb Trial Told of Boxes in Pub|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19750611&id=dZBAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6KQMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4667,2131125&hl=en|access-date=22 June 2021|work=The Glasgow Herald|date=11 June 1975}}</ref> Murray, Kelly and Sheehan were also charged with conspiracy to cause explosions across the Midlands, with Kelly and Sheehan facing the additional charges of possession of explosives.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irishhistorian.com/People/PaddyHill.html|title=Paddy Hill and the Birmingham Six|publisher=irishhistorian.com|date=3 January 2012|access-date=10 July 2017}}</ref>

All six men emphatically maintained their innocence, stating they had never been members of the IRA; that they had not known James McDade had been a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army until his death; and reiterating their earlier claims of having been subject to intense physical and psychological abuse upon their arrest. Sheehan and Kelly also denied the charges brought against them, with Murray simply refusing to acknowledge or speak throughout the entire proceedings. (No direct evidence was offered to link Murray, Sheehan or Kelly with the Birmingham pub bombings. Nonetheless, [[the Crown]] [[Allegation|alleged]] they were part of the same IRA unit as the Birmingham Six, and contended the Birmingham pub bombs may have been planted "in some illogical way" to avenge or commemorate the death of James McDade.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.innocent.org.uk/cases/birmingham6/birmingham6.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192223/http://www.innocent.org.uk/cases/birmingham6/birmingham6.pdf|url-status=usurped|title=The Birmingham Pub Bombs: People in the Case|archivedate=4 March 2016}}</ref>)

The primary evidence presented against the Birmingham Six linking them to the Birmingham pub bombings were their written confessions, the Griess tests conducted by Frank Skuse at Morecambe police station, and [[circumstantial evidence]] indicative of [[Irish republicanism|Irish republican]] sympathies which would be supported by [[Character evidence|character witnesses]] called to testify on behalf of the prosecution.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn= 1-85371-090-3|pages=161–162|chapter=Chapter 26}}</ref>

Skuse testified as to his conducting Griess tests upon the hands of the six men following their arrest, stating as to his being 99% certain that both Hill and Power had handled explosive materials, and to a possibility Walker may also have done so. Skuse conceded that he could not rule out the possibility that Walker's right hand could have been contaminated from his (Skuse's) own hands,<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 165"/> as Walker was the last of the five men to be [[Cotton swab|swabbed]] at Morecambe police station, and had at first tested negative to the Griess test, before a second swab had revealed faint, positive traces of [[ammonium]] and [[nitrate]]s.<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 59"/> This testimony was refuted by Dr. Hugh Kenneth Black, a former Chief Inspector of Explosives for the [[Home Office]], who testified that a range of innocuous substances and objects one could handle on a daily basis containing [[nitrocellulose]] (such as varnishes and paints) would produce a positive result to a Griess test. Moreover, the tests conducted by Skuse had not succeeded in identifying nitroglycerine as the source of the positive results produced by the Griess tests, and the Crown had earlier conceded that an exhaustive search of the six men's homes had revealed no traces of nitroglycerine.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn= 1-85371-090-3|page=160|chapter=Chapter 26}}</ref>

Several weeks into the trial, Mr Justice Bridge overruled motions from the defence counsel that the four written confessions obtained from their clients should be omitted from evidence due to their being extorted under extreme physical and mental pressure, instead citing the statements as [[admissible evidence]]. These written confessions were presented in evidence at the trial following an eight-day hearing conducted without the presence of the jury.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn= 1-85371-090-3|page=187|chapter=Chapter 30}}</ref> The judge refused to allow the jury to view the written confessions,<ref name="auto1"/> which would have disclosed not only that each of the four written confessions contradicted details contained within the three other confessions, but that they also contradicted testimony from forensic scientists delivered earlier in the trial as to the devices used to conceal the bombs, and the locations in which they had been placed inside the public houses. For example, William Power had claimed in his written confession that he had placed the bomb which devastated the ''Mulberry Bush'' public house by a jukebox at the foot of a staircase to the premises; whereas a forensic scientist named Douglas Higgs had testified on the fourth day of the trial that the bomb which had detonated within these premises had been left by a wall located towards the rear of the premises.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn= 1-85371-090-3|page=164|chapter=Chapter 26}}</ref>

====Conviction====
The trial lasted 45 days, and saw one hundred witnesses testify on behalf of the prosecution and defence.<ref name="Error of Judgement p. 159"/> On 14 August 1975, the jury retired to consider their verdicts. These deliberations continued until the following day.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn= 1-85371-090-3|pages=204–206|chapter=Chapter 32}}</ref> On the afternoon of 15 August, having deliberated for over six-and-a-half hours, the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts in relation to the 21 murder charges against the Birmingham Six.<ref name="cain.ulster.ac.uk"/> Upon passing sentence, Mr Justice Bridge informed the defendants: "You stand convicted of each of 21 counts, on the clearest and most overwhelming evidence I have ever heard, of the crime of murder."<ref name="SixLife">{{cite news|title=Six Pub-bomb Murderers Get Life Sentences|date=16 August 1975|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19750816&id=mY9AAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5aQMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3497,2959328&hl=en|publisher=The Glasgow Herald|access-date=29 September 2021}}</ref> All six men were sentenced to life imprisonment. None of the Birmingham Six displayed any emotion upon hearing the verdict, although William Power saluted the judge.<ref name="SixLife"/>

At the same trial, Michael Murray and Michael Sheehan were each convicted of conspiracy to cause explosions and sentenced to nine years' imprisonment.<ref name="west-midlands police.co.uk"/> James Kelly was found not guilty of conspiracy to cause explosions, but guilty of the possession of explosives and sentenced to one year's imprisonment; his counsel, Edwin Jowett, successfully argued that his client had already served the equivalent of a one-year sentence, and he was released from prison on 23 August.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn=1-85371-090-3|page=207|chapter=Chapter 32}}</ref>

After sentencing all nine defendants, Mr Justice Bridge [[Summons|summoned]] the [[Chief Constable]] of [[Lancashire]] and the [[Assistant Chief Constable]] of the West Midlands to hear a final address; both were commended for their collective efforts in interrogating and obtaining the four confessions presented in evidence. In addressing the defendants' assertions as to physical and psychological abuse while in the custody of both constabularies, Mr Justice Bridge concluded: "These investigations both at Morecambe and Birmingham were carried out with scrupulous propriety by all your officers".<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn=1-85371-090-3|page=208|chapter=Chapter 32}}</ref>

===Appeals and independent reviews===
Following their conviction, the Birmingham Six continued to steadfastly maintain their innocence. All six men submitted an application to appeal their convictions; this motion was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in March 1976.<ref name="Express & Star. 21 November 2014"/> Two years later, in November 1978, the Birmingham Six were granted legal aid to sue the Lancashire and West Midlands Police forces, and the Home Office, through the Court of Appeal in relation to the injuries they had suffered in custody. This motion to appeal their convictions on these grounds was challenged by the West Midlands Police, and was [[Strike from the record|stricken]] by [[Alfred Denning, Baron Denning|Lord Denning]] in January 1980,<ref>McKittrick, David. ''Lost Lives'' {{ISBN|978-1-780-57649-7}} p. 498</ref> thereby thwarting the attempts of the men to find legal redress for their grievances via these grounds. The Birmingham Six were initially refused permission to further appeal against their convictions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.innocent.org.uk/cases/birmingham6/birmingham6.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192223/http://www.innocent.org.uk/cases/birmingham6/birmingham6.pdf|url-status=usurped|title=The Birmingham Pub Bombs: People in the Case (p. 15)|archivedate=4 March 2016}}</ref> The following year, Patrick Hill embarked on a month-long [[hunger strike]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19811125&id=1cYyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=H2gEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4449,4916389&hl=en|title=IRA Bomber in an English Jail on 31st Day of Hunger Strike|publisher=[[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]]|date=25 November 1981|author1=Mara Gottfried|access-date=30 November 2020}}</ref> in an unsuccessful bid to have his case reopened.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1917&dat=19811124&id=-qNNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CukMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2368,8008382&hl=en|title=New IRA Hunger Striker in English Jail|publisher=[[Schenectady Gazette]]|date=25 November 1981|author1=David Cowell|access-date=4 October 2021}}</ref>

In 1982, Patrick Hill was visited by civil rights lawyer [[Gareth Peirce]], who agreed to act on his behalf. Peirce also encouraged Hill and his co-accused to continue to compile evidence attesting to their innocence and to write to media personnel such as journalist [[Chris Mullin (politician)|Chris Mullin]], and politicians such as [[John Farr (British politician)|Sir John Farr]] in an effort to garner support for a review of their case. Farr responded to this correspondence in March 1983, and later thoroughly reviewed all documents relating to the men's conviction, concluding that the forensic evidence which existed against the six men was "not worth the paper it was written on".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forejustice.org/wc/bh6/forever_lost.htm|title=Forever Lost; Forever Gone|publisher=forejustice.org|date=18 July 2015|access-date=4 October 2021}}</ref>

In 1985, the [[current affairs (news format)|current affairs]] news programme ''[[World in Action]]'' presented the first of six episodes focusing upon the Birmingham pub bombings which seriously challenged the validity of the convictions of the six men. In this first episode broadcast, two distinguished forensic scientists conducted a series of Griess tests upon 35 separate common substances which the men had likely come into contact within their everyday lives.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hamer |first=Mick |date=26 November 1987 |title=Court Scrutinises Tests that Sent Six Men to Prison |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRwj7L_YTTQC&dq=%22BIRMINGHAM+PUB+BOMB%22+%221985%22+%22GRIESS+TEST%22&pg=PA27 |publisher=New Scientist |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>''Error of Judgment'' {{ISBN|978-1-853-71365-1}} pp. 238–39</ref>

Each forensic scientist confirmed that only substances containing nitrocellulose produced a positive result, and that the Griess test would only produce a positive reaction to nitrocellulose if conducted in a room at typical room temperature. When asked to comment on testimony delivered at the trial of the Birmingham Six, in which Dr. Skuse had stated that the temperature in a room in which the Griess test was conducted would need to be heated to 60&nbsp;°C to produce a false positive reaction to nitrocellulose (thereby confusing the reading with nitroglycerine), one of the forensic scientists stated, "Frankly, I was amazed."<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn=1-85371-090-3|page=239|chapter=Chapter 37}}</ref>

Also appearing on this first ''World in Action'' episode broadcast was a former West Midlands policeman, who confirmed that each of the Birmingham Six had been subjected to beatings and threats while in the custody of the West Midlands Crime Squad.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19870121&id=YaNAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=k6UMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3670,3959618&hl=en|title=Hurd Refers Pub Bombing Case to the Appeal Court|publisher=[[The Glasgow Herald]]|date=21 January 1987|access-date=4 October 2021}}</ref> In addition, a former IRA Chief of Staff, Joe Cahill, on the same programme, acknowledged the IRA's role in the Birmingham pub bombings.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/nov/22/northernireland.northernireland|title=IRA Fails to Say Sorry for Birmingham Pub Bombs|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=22 November 2004|access-date=23 April 2017}}</ref>

In 1986, British Labour politician and journalist [[Chris Mullin (politician)|Chris Mullin]] published ''Error of Judgement: Truth About the Birmingham Bombings'', which provided further evidence that the men had been wrongly convicted. The book included anonymous interviews with some of those who claimed to have been involved in the bombings, and who claimed the protocol 30-minute warning bomb warning had been delayed because the preselected telephone box had been vandalised, and that by the time another telephone box was found, the advance warning had been significantly delayed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn= 1-85371-090-3|pages=153–54|chapter=Chapter 24}}</ref>

====1987 Court of Appeal hearing====
In January 1987, the Home Office referred the conviction of the Birmingham Six to the Court of Appeal.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19870122&id=FPVjAAAAIBAJ&pg=6373,4018114&hl=en|title=Britain Told Six in Jail for IRA Blasts May Not be Guilty|access-date=19 December 2017|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=22 January 1987}}</ref> This motion resulted from the findings of forensic scientists working for the Home Office, who had expressed grave concerns as to the reliability of the Griess tests cited as forensic evidence of the defendants' guilt. In granting this motion, the Home Secretary himself emphasised that he had "little or no confidence" in the reliability of this test. This appeal was heard before three judges of the Court of Appeal in November 1987.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xAF2K_xc8CIC&dq=birmingham+six&pg=PA24|title=The Science that Changed a Minister's Mind|date=29 January 1987|publisher=New Scientist|via=Google Books}}</ref>

At this hearing, the defence counsels argued that the Birmingham Six were victims of a gross miscarriage of justice, that they had been convicted upon unreliable forensic evidence, and that the signed confessions were contradictory and had been obtained under extreme physical and mental [[duress]]. The allegations of physical mistreatment were corroborated by a former policeman named Thomas Clarke, who testified as to the defendants' mistreatment while incarcerated at Winson Green Prison.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19871102&id=wTY1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=NKYLAAAAIBAJ&pg=4307,70314&hl=e|title=Pub Bombing Appeals Begin|access-date=19 December 2017|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|date=2 November 1987}}</ref>

This appeal also heard evidence from Mullin, who testified in detail as to the contradictions in the written and verbal confessions obtained from the defendants, both with regards to the events of the day, and with regards to the content of the statements made by their fellow defendants—all purported by the Crown to be solid evidence. Mullin also testified as to the fundamental flaws in the forensic tests conducted upon the men's hands for traces of nitroglycerine.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19871102&id=bPsxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GOUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5667,3535825&hl=en|title=Appeal Begins Today for Six Convicted in Pub Bombings|access-date=19 December 2017|newspaper=[[Reading Eagle]]|date=2 November 1987}}</ref>

This evidence was contradicted by [[Igor Judge, Baron Judge|Igor Judge]], QC, who informed the three judges of the Court of Appeal of the Crown's allegations that police had obtained false confessions by subjecting the men to severe physical and emotional abuse was "baseless", and of his belief that only film footage of the defendants planting the bombs would provide stronger evidence than that which already existed against the Birmingham Six.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19871128&id=zzY1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=NKYLAAAAIBAJ&pg=6219,8268833&hl=en|title=Police Conspiracy in Pub Bombing Case 'Baseless'|access-date=19 December 2017|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|date=28 November 1987}}</ref> On 28 January 1988, the [[Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales]] again upheld the convictions of the Birmingham Six as safe.<ref name="Express & Star. 21 November 2014"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19880126&id=YDpAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UlkMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4455,5427898&hl=en|title=Court Sets Date|access-date=19 November 2017|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|date=26 January 1988}}</ref>

====Further media exposure====
In March 1990, [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] broadcast the [[Granada Television]] [[docudrama|documentary drama]], ''Who Bombed Birmingham?''; a drama which recounted the events of the arrest of the Birmingham Six, the evidence presented at the trial and Mullins' then-ongoing efforts to prove Birmingham Six had been the victims of a miscarriage of justice. This documentary drama extensively detailed both the flaws in the forensic evidence against the men, and the extensive physical and psychological abuse to which they had been subjected. The programme named four of five members of the Provisional IRA as having organised and committed the Birmingham pub bombings.<ref name="British TV Names Bombing Suspects">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/29/world/british-tv-names-bombing-suspects.html?src=pm|title=British TV Names Bombing Suspects|access-date=3 October 2021|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=29 March 1990}}</ref>

One of these men was [[Mick Murray (Irish republican)|Mick Murray]], who had been tried alongside the Birmingham Six and convicted of conspiracy to cause explosions.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article392466.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523213354/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article392466.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 May 2011|title=The Man Behind the Pub Bombs in Birmingham that Killed 21|author=Sean O'Neill|date=18 November 2004|access-date=4 October 2020|newspaper=[[The Times]]}}</ref> Murray was named as having assisted in the selection of the targets, and had later placed the advance warning call to the ''Birmingham Post'' and ''Birmingham Evening Mail'' newspapers, which was delayed by a half-hour due to the fact that the pre-selected telephone had been vandalised and another needed to be located, leading to the fateful delay in the warning calls. The other three named in the documentary were Seamus McLoughlin, whom the programme asserted had also planned the atrocities; James Francis Gavin (a.k.a. James Kelly, who had likewise been tried alongside the Birmingham Six and convicted of the possession of explosives), who had allegedly constructed each of the bombs; and Michael Christopher Hayes,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-47670167|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: 'Men Responsible' Named by IRA Bomber|access-date=21 June 2019|date=22 March 2019|publisher=BBC News}}</ref> who had planted the bombs at the preselected locations.{{refn|group=n|The same four individuals would be named by "Witness O" at the 2019 inquest into the bombings.<ref name=BBC1904 />}}

The [[executive producer]] of ''Who Bombed Birmingham?'', Ray Fitzwalter, has stated that those involved in the production of this documentary drama are 100 percent certain that those named as the perpetrators of the Birmingham pub bombings had committed the atrocities.<ref name="British TV Names Bombing Suspects"/>{{refn|group=n|When broadcast in Ireland, the caption before the credits where these names were given was redacted.<ref name="British TV Names Bombing Suspects"/>}}

===Release===
{{quote box
| quote = ''"I don't complain that we have a legal system that makes mistakes; that can happen anywhere in the world. What I complain about is that we lack the mechanism for owning up to mistakes".''
| source = Chris Mullin, reflecting on the struggle he and others had undertaken to prove the innocence of the Birmingham Six on the day of their release. 14 March 1991.<ref>''Lost Lives'' {{ISBN|978-1-780-57649-7}} p. 498</ref>
| width = 30em}}
On 29 August 1990, as a result of further fresh evidence uncovered following the 1988 dismissal of appeal, the Home Secretary again referred the convictions of the Birmingham Six to the Court of Appeal. This appeal was heard by Lord Justice Lloyd between 4 and 14 March 1991.<ref name="miscarriagesofjustice.org"/> At the conclusion of this second appeal, the convictions of the Birmingham Six were quashed upon the bases of police fabrication of evidence, the suppression of evidence, and the unreliability of the scientific evidence presented at their 1975 trial. The tests conducted by Skuse upon the defendants' hands for nitroglycerine were deemed by the three Court of Appeal judges as being particularly unreliable and "demonstrably wrong ... even by the state of [[forensic science]] in 1974".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/news/whoever-bombed-birmingham-wouldnt-stand-8148218|title=Whoever Bombed Birmingham Wouldn't Stand a Chance Today|first=Andy|last=Richards|date=21 November 2014|access-date=5 November 2020|website=business-live.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://netk.net.au/UK/Schurr.pdf|title=Expert Witnesses and the Duties of Disclosure & Impartiality: The Lessons of the IRA Cases in England|first=Beverley|last=Schnurr|date=1 January 2005|access-date=6 August 2017|website=netk.net.au}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|quote="Both the scientific evidence of contamination by nitroglycerine and the documents said to set out the confessions obtained by the police were found to be unreliable following the admission of fresh evidence."|title=Expert Witnesses and the Duties of Disclosure and Impartiality: The Lessons of the IRA Cases in England|access-date=10 October 2011|author=Schurr|url=http://netk.net.au/UK/Schurr.pdf}}</ref>{{refn|group=n|Frank Skuse was ordered by the Home Office to retire on the grounds of "limited efficiency" in October 1985. Within a year of his retirement, all 350 cases in which Skuse had provided forensic evidence throughout his career had been reassessed.<ref name="news.google.com"/>}}

The discrediting of this evidence was sufficient for the Crown to dismiss pleas from the prosecution to find the convictions "unsatisfactory but not unsafe". On the afternoon of 14 March, Lord Justice Lloyd announced his intentions to withdraw the Crown's case against the defendants. Upon announcing his intention to withdraw the convictions, Lord Justice Lloyd informed the Birmingham Six: "In the light of the fresh evidence which has been made available since the last hearing in this court, your appeals will be allowed and you are free to go."<ref name="auto">{{Cite news|url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk/1991/mar/15/northernireland.davidpallister|title=Irishmen Freed as Appeal is Allowed After New Evidence|last=Pallister|first=David|date=15 March 1991|access-date=4 October 2021|work=The Guardian}}</ref>{{refn|group=n|In 1993, five West Midlands Police officers would be charged with [[perverting the course of justice]] in connection with the original criminal investigation into the Birmingham Six, although a judge ruled that obtaining a fair trial for these individuals would be impossible.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2017/1206/925430-birmingham-pub-bomb-case/|title=Court Told no Full Investigation Into 1974 Birmingham Bombings|date=6 December 2017|access-date=4 October 2021|publisher=[[Raidió Teilifís Éireann]]}}</ref>}}

Emerging from the Old Bailey to an ecstatic public reception,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch91.htm#14391|title=Chronology of the Conflict: 1991. Tuesday 14 March|publisher=cain.ulst.ac.uk|date=31 December 2002|access-date=30 September 2021|archive-date=6 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806140637/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch91.htm#14391|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,1780285,00.html|title=Birmingham Six Member Dies in Hospital|last=Laville|first=Sandra|date=22 May 2006|access-date=4 October 2021|work=The Guardian}}</ref> each of the men addressed the press and public with varying statements<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2011/mar/12/gareth-peirce-birmingham-six|title=The Birmingham Six: Have we Learned from our Disgraceful Past?|date=12 March 2011|access-date=12 January 2018|last=Peirce|first=Gareth|author-link=Gareth Peirce|work=The Guardian}}</ref> including their concern for "many more people—both Irish and English—still wrongfully behind bars".<ref name="auto"/>

In 2001, each of the Birmingham Six was subsequently paid between £840,000 and £1.2 million in compensation.<ref>{{cite news|title=Birmingham Six: 40th Anniversary of Pub Bombings that Led to 'One of the Worst Miscarriages of British Justice'|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/birmingham-six-40th-anniversary-of-pub-bombings-that-led-to-one-of-the-worst-miscarriages-of-british-justice-9874920.html|access-date=25 June 2021|work=The Independent|date=21 November 2014}}</ref>{{refn|group=n|Further unsafe convictions pertaining to cases handled by the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad also emerged in the 1980s, adding to the suspicion that these case may also have been mishandled. A formal investigation into these cases was implemented in 1989. Subsequently, 60 further convictions were quashed over the next three decades.}}

==Renewed inquests==
[[File:Birmingham pub bombings plaque Birmingham England.jpg|thumb|The memorial plaque to the 21 victims of the Birmingham pub bombs within the grounds of [[St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham|Saint Philip's Cathedral]]]]
The West Midlands Police and then-Director of Public Prosecutions, [[Dame]] [[Barbara Mills]], reopened their investigation into the Birmingham pub bombings following the release of the Birmingham Six. In April 1994, the Chief Constable of the West Midlands, [[Ron Hadfield]], publicly stated: "The file, so far as we are concerned is now closed ... We have done everything we could possibly have done to bring the perpetrators to justice". Hadfield then emphasised that the Director of Public Prosecutions had found "insufficient evidence for [criminal] proceedings to be taken".<ref>{{cite news|title=Birmingham Pub Bomb Case Closed|last=Bennetto|first=Jason|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/birmingham-pub-bomb-case-closed-1371592.html|access-date=27 June 2021|work=The Independent|date=21 April 1994}}</ref>

At the conclusion of the 1994 investigation, the Director of Public Prosecutions implemented a 75-year [[public-interest immunity]] certificate on documents relating to the Birmingham pub bombings—effectively preventing any release of documents relating to the reinvestigation until 2069.<ref name=guardfeb14/> This court order forbids the [[Discovery (law)|disclosure]] of this evidence to the public on the grounds that any disclosure would be deemed to be damaging to the [[public interest]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: Why Has No-one been Brought to Justice?|date=21 November 2021|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-30118137|publisher=[[BBC News]]|access-date=6 October 2021}}</ref>

On 1 June 2016, the senior [[coroner]] for Birmingham and [[Solihull]], [[Louise Hunt (coroner)|Louise Hunt]], announced renewed [[inquest]]s into the Birmingham pub bombings, citing two occasions where evidence clearly indicated the West Midlands Police had received a minimum of two advance warnings of the impending attacks at the two pubs—one of which had been made by known IRA members who had unequivocally stated on 10 November that Birmingham was to be "hit next week".<ref name="autogenerated1974">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/birmingham-pub-bombings-coroner-rules-fresh-inquests-be-held-deaths-21-people-a7059136.html|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: Fresh Inquests to be Held into Deaths of 21 People|access-date=6 January 2019|last=Withnall|first=Adam|newspaper=The Independent|date=1 June 2016}}</ref> This conversation had been reported to police; no evidence is known to exist showing that the West Midlands Police had taken any effective responsive action to this threat. A second warning had been given to police on the day of the bombings, yet no action is known to have been taken.<ref name="autogenerated1974"/>

Although Hunt states that any claims that police were/are protecting an IRA [[mole (espionage)|mole]] are unfounded, and that the response of emergency services on the night of the blasts did not in any way contribute to the deaths, in one section of her report, she states: "I have serious concerns that advanced notice of the bombs may have been available to the police, and that they failed to take the necessary steps to protect public life."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36424133|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings Inquests to be Reopened|access-date=6 January 2019|publisher=BBC News|date=1 June 2016}}</ref>

In September 2018, the Lord Chief Justice ruled that any suspects in the bombings were not due to be named at upcoming inquests into the bombings, the judges present at the hearing having upheld an earlier coroner's decision to omit issues pertaining to responsibility for the bombings in these inquests.{{refn|group=n|The families of the victims had initially argued the inquests into the bombings should investigate any issues regarding the perpetrator(s) due to the original police investigation into the bombings having resulted in a gross [[miscarriage of justice]]. In July 2018, Coroner [[Peter Thornton (judge)|Sir Peter Thornton]] [[Queen's Counsel|QC]] ruled the names of the alleged perpetrators would not be part of any framework within upcoming inquests.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-44861928|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: Coroner Challenges Inquest Ruling|access-date=27 November 2018|newspaper=BBC News|date=17 July 2018}}</ref>}} The renewed inquests commenced on 11 February 2019.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-46047614|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: Inquests to Start Next Year|access-date=27 November 2018|newspaper=BBC News|date=31 October 2018}}</ref>

With permission from the current head of the IRA,<ref name="BBC-47670167" /> an individual known only as "Witness O" testified at this inquest on 22 March, naming four men (one of whom was Mick Murray) as responsible for the bombings. He also testified as to his belief that security services had been given adequate time to evacuate both pubs.<ref name="BBC-47670167">{{cite news |title='Men Responsible' for Pub Blasts Named |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-47670167 |work=BBC News |access-date=22 March 2019 |date=22 March 2019}}</ref> On 5 April, the jury of 11 found that a botched advance IRA telephone warning contributed to or caused the 21 deaths and that there had been no error or omission in the police response to the given warning call which might have limited the loss of life.<ref name=BBC1904>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-47829118|title=Inquest Findings: Victims Were Unlawfully Killed|access-date=6 April 2019|date=5 April 2019|publisher=BBC News}}</ref>

==Independent campaign==
[[File:Birmingham St Philips pub bomb memorial England.jpg|thumb|Wreath laid by the family of Maxine Hambleton at the memorial plaque to the 21 victims of the Birmingham pub bombs]]
In 2011, Brian and Julie Hambleton, who lost their 18-year-old sister Maxine in the ''Tavern in the Town'' explosion, initiated a campaign called ''Justice for the 21''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.expressandstar.com/news/crime/2021/03/20/pcc-candidate-julie-will-always-fight-for-justice/|last=Driver-Fisher|first=James|title=Birmingham Pub Bombing Campaigner to Run for Police Commissioner|publisher=Express & Star|date=21 May 2021|access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref> The stated aims of this campaign are to highlight and resolve the fact that, although the inquiry is officially an open one, no efforts are being made to actively pursue the perpetrators of the Birmingham pub bombings unless significant new leads are to surface, and to resolve the issue that the families of the 21 victims have never seen true justice for the loss of their loved ones.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/birmingham-ira-west-midlands-police-justice-b954321.html|last=Vernalls|first=Richard|title=Leading Pub Bombings Campaigner Gave Speech to Get People 'to Disperse'|access-date=6 October 2021|newspaper=[[Evening Standard]]|date=8 September 2021}}</ref> ''Justice for the 21'' wants to see the criminal investigation into the bombings reopened and the perpetrators brought to justice or, if deceased, publicly named.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-24963455|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: Call to Reopen Investigation|work=BBC News|date=16 November 2013|access-date=30 September 2021}}</ref> When asked in 2012 why she and her brother had instigated this campaign, Julie Hambleton stated: "Someone has to fight for them; someone has to speak on their behalf, because they're not here to do it themselves ... It doesn't matter how much time has passed."<ref>{{cite news|title=Campaigner Fights to Re-open Inquiry into Birmingham Pub Bombings|date=2 February 2012|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/campaigner-fights-re-open-inquiry-birmingham-178179|access-date=7 October 2021|publisher=Birmingham Mail}}</ref>

Campaigners for ''Justice for the 21'' believe they have amassed evidence indicating that a British [[double agent]] was part of an IRA unit that had committed the pub bombings.<ref>{{cite news|title=Birmingham Pub Bombing Families' Fury as Martin McGuinness Speaks at Peace Conference|date=18 September 2013|url=https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/birmingham-pub-bombing-families-fury-6053241|last=Lockley|first=Michael|access-date=17 June 2018|publisher=Birmingham Mail}}</ref><ref name=guardfeb14>{{cite news|title=Member of Birmingham Six Challenges IRA Pub Bombers to Come Forward|date=2 February 2014|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/02/birmingham-six-challenge-ira-paddy-hill|access-date=16 June 2018|work=The Guardian}}</ref>

Following a 2014 meeting held at the West Midlands Police headquarters to discuss the findings of a two-year reassessment of all available evidence connected with the original 1974 inquiry,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.expressandstar.com/news/crime/2014/04/10/birmingham-pub-bombings-police-focus-on-envelopes-to-help-crack-case|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: Police Focus on Envelopes to Help Crack Case|access-date=6 October 2021|newspaper=Express & Star|date=10 April 2014}}</ref> campaigners within ''Justice for the 21'' were informed that unless "new and significant information" was forthcoming, there would be no further inquiry into the Birmingham pub bombings. At this meeting, the Chief Constable of the West Midlands informed the campaigners that 35 pieces of evidence from the original 1974 inquiry were now missing, including the bomb which had been discovered at Hagley Road and safely destroyed in a controlled explosion.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-26920619|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: No New Inquiry to be Held|access-date=6 October 2021|publisher=BBC News|date=7 April 2014}}</ref>

In November 2014, the ''Justice for the 21'' campaign implemented a fresh petition to pressure the British Government to form a new inquiry into the Birmingham pub bombings. This petition was signed by four retired West Midlands Police officers, and by Patrick Hill, who wrote of his desire that a fresh inquiry would "establish the true circumstances of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, and to order the release of all government, police, and Crown papers related to the case in order to bring truth and justice for the 21 innocent people who died, the 182 people who were injured, for the six innocent men who were wrongfully convicted, and for the families of all those affected."<ref name="Express & Star 21 November 2014"/>

Patrick Hill has publicly backed the efforts of the ''Justice for the 21'' campaign,<ref>{{cite news|last=McDonald|first=Henry|title=Birmingham Six Man's Call for Truth About Blasts Backed by Victim's Family|date=2 February 2014|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/02/paddy-hill-call-truth-birmingham-pub-bombings-supported-victim-family|work=The Guardian|access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref> and would later state that, following their 1991 release from prison, the Birmingham Six had been informed of the names of the true perpetrators of the Birmingham pub bombings and that their identities are known among the upper echelons of both the IRA and the British government.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk/feedarticle/10207331|title=Birmingham Six Man Signs Petition|access-date=6 October 2021|newspaper=The Guardian|date=21 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216024952/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/feedarticle/10207331|archive-date=16 December 2013}}</ref> Hill stated that, following the 1998 [[Good Friday Agreement]], he has been told that five members of the Provisional IRA have admitted to committing the Birmingham pub bombings, relying on a clause in the Good Friday Agreement offering immunity from prosecution. Two of these men have since died and a further two have been promised immunity, whereas a fifth man reportedly had not received any such assurances.<ref name="Express & Star 21 November 2014">{{cite news|url=https://www.expressandstar.com/news/2014/11/21/40-years-on-and-no-justice-for-the-birmingham-pub-bombings-victims|title=40 Years On and No Justice for the Birmingham Pub Bombings Victims|access-date=4 October 2021|date=21 November 2014|newspaper=Express & Star}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-pub-bombers-given-secret-6762168|title=Birmingham Pub Bombers Given Secret Letters Promising Immunity – Claims Paddy Hill|access-date=10 March 2014|last=Hale|first=Don|date=2 March 2014|newspaper=The Birmingham Mail}}</ref>

==Aftermath==
{{quote box
| quote = ''"Nobody ever apologised to us. We done sixteen and a half years. What happened 30 years ago was a disaster. People say 21 people lost their lives that day. What about the six men who went to prison? We lost our lives also. I felt sorry for what happened in Birmingham that night, but people must remember I done sixteen and a half years in prison for something I did not do."''
| source = John Walker of the Birmingham Six, reflecting on the Birmingham pub bombings, 2004.<ref name="guardian.co.uk">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/nov/18/northernireland.northernireland|title=IRA Should Apologise for Pub Bombings: Sinn Fein|access-date=10 March 2019|last=Wright|first=Georgia|date=18 November 2004|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref>
| width = 30em
}}
* In the weeks and months following the Birmingham pub bombings, Birmingham's Irish community experienced ostracism, assault and abuse. As a result of these tensions, any public celebrations of Irish culture, including the annual [[St Patrick's Day]] Parade, were cancelled. Tensions created in the wake of the bombings would take more than a decade to heal.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/birmingham-bombings-city-still-struggling-to-cope-40-years-on-1.2009500 |title=Birmingham Bombings: City Still Struggling to Cope 40 Years On |publisher=irishtimes.com |date=14 November 2014 |access-date=12 February 2017}}</ref>
* In 1983, the Director of the Birmingham Irish Welfare and Information Centre, Rev. Joe Taaffe, reinstated Birmingham's annual St Patrick's Day Parade, with a message that the Irish community in Birmingham should again unashamedly celebrate their heritage without fear of reprisal.<ref name="Irish Post 21 November 2014">{{cite news|url=http://www.irishpost.co.uk/news/irish-birmingham-40-years-birmingham-bombings|title=The Irish in Birmingham: 40 Years On from the Birmingham Pub Bombings|publisher=irishpost.com|date=21 November 2014|access-date=26 February 2017|archive-date=25 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150325012436/http://www.irishpost.co.uk/news/irish-birmingham-40-years-birmingham-bombings|url-status=dead}}</ref> Birmingham's annual St Patrick's Day Parade is considered to be the world's third largest St Patrick's Day Parade, with annual attendance figures reaching or surpassing 130,000.<ref name="Irish Post 21 November 2014"/>
[[File:Paddy Hill - the Birmingham Six.jpg|thumb|Patrick Hill in 2015. He is seen here addressing an audience as to his advocacy in fighting [[miscarriage of justice|miscarriages of justice]].]]
* Following his release from prison in 1991, Patrick Hill co-founded of the ''Miscarriages of Justice Organisation''; a group whose dual aims are to provide and improve emotional and physical support for those found to have been wrongly convicted once released from prison, and to provide [[advocate|advocacy]] for those still inside prison who proclaim their innocence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.miscarriagesofjustice.org/latest-news|title=MOJO Scotland: Latest News|publisher=miscarriagesofjustice.org|date=29 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701191232/http://www.miscarriagesofjustice.org/latest-news|access-date=1 July 2015|archive-date=1 July 2015}}</ref> Patrick Hill and the families of those killed in the Birmingham pub bombings remain united in their efforts to overturn the 75-year public interest immunity order imposed in 1994, and have publicly demanded the British Government order the release of all government, police, and crown papers related to the case.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thejusticegap.com/birmingham-pub-bombings-75-year-guarantee-silence/|last=Robins|first=Jon|title=The Birmingham Pub Bombings and the 75 Year 'Guarantee of Silence'|publisher=thejusticegap.com|date=28 February 2014|access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref> In reference to the public interest immunity order, a spokeswoman for the ''Justice for the 21'' campaign group commented in 2014:

{{quote|Patrick [Hill] clarified the details of this and the significance of this in relation to the truth being known. With reference to the kind of information that is hidden in these files, it's anyone's guess. But, for us, knowing that they [the files relating to the Birmingham pub bombings] have been locked away for so long, only adds weight to our argument that the government and the police do not want this information to be known until we are all dead. Why do you think that might be? What do they have to hide and who are they protecting?}}

* In 2004, civil rights campaigner and Catholic priest the Rev. [[Denis Faul]] (who had previously campaigned for the release of the Birmingham Six) officially called on the IRA to both admit their culpability in the Birmingham pub bombings, and to apologise. These calls were echoed by Sinn Féin, who stated: "What happened in Birmingham 30 years ago was wrong and should not have happened", adding "[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".<ref name="guardian.co.uk"/>
* In 2014, the ''Birmingham Mail'' named Michael Murray as the mastermind behind the Birmingham pub bombings. Murray was an admitted member of the Provisional IRA who held a high rank within the Birmingham IRA unit; he had been arrested just four days after the Birmingham pub bombings and had stood trial alongside the Birmingham Six, and although charged only with conspiracy to cause explosions, the prosecutor had suggested Murray may have been the mastermind behind the bombings. Prior to his 1975 trial, Murray had been convicted of separate charges of conspiracy to cause explosions and with causing an explosion.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-pub-bombings-name-man-8141604|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: We Name the Man who Masterminded the Atrocity|access-date=12 February 2017|newspaper=Birmingham Mail|date=21 November 2014}}</ref>
* The ''Birmingham Mail'' alleges Murray had assisted in the construction of the bombs at a house in [[Bordesley Green]], and had then transported them to the city centre, where he had handed them to another person, who then placed them in the preselected targets, before Murray telephoned the delayed warning calls to the two Birmingham newspapers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://netk.net.au/UK/Bombings8.asp|title=IRA Bombings Case Reports: The Birmingham Pub Bombings|first=Robert M.|last=Moles|date=7 July 2012|access-date=6 August 2018|website=netk.net.au}}</ref> These allegations are supported by Patrick Hill and John Walker, who remain adamant that at one stage during the 1975 trial, Murray had privately admitted being one of the bombers.<ref name=framework/> Murray allegedly told the two men: "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",<ref>Gibson, Brian. ''The Birmingham Bombs'' {{ISBN|978-0-859-92070-4}} p. 148</ref> before threatening the two men that if they ever divulged this admission, both they and their families would be attacked.<ref name="birminghammail.co.uk"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Mullin|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Mullin (politician)|title=Error of Judgement|year=1990|edition=3rd|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn= 1-85371-090-3|pages=153–154|chapter=Chapter 24}}</ref>
* Mick Murray never admitted his alleged involvement in the Birmingham pub bombings. Following his release from prison, he remained active within the Provisional IRA, and later became a vocal opponent of the [[decommissioning in Northern Ireland]] as part of the [[Northern Ireland peace process]]. He died of a heart attack in [[County Tipperary]] in 1999.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-pub-bombings-name-man-8141604|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: We Name the Man who Masterminded the Atrocity|access-date=11 February 2017|newspaper=Birmingham Mail|date=21 November 2014}}</ref>
* [[Kieran Conway]], a former senior officer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, admitted in 2014 the PIRA had committed the Birmingham pub bombings, adding that he was "appalled and ashamed" at the attack, and that other senior IRA officials shared his opinion the bombings had been immoral and detrimental to the objectives of the republican movement. Conway, however, disputed allegations that an insufficient warning had deliberately been given to security services due to ill-feeling within the IRA over the disrupted funeral arrangements for James McDade, but claimed the perpetrators had tried to use several phone boxes which were either out of order or in use to deliver the protocol 30-minute warning, before finding a free, operable phone box to deliver the warning call.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-pub-bombings-ex-ira-chief-8252395|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: Ex-IRA Chief Admits 'We Did it and I Am Ashamed'|newspaper=Birmingham Mail|access-date=9 December 2014}}</ref>
* On 10 July 2017, [[BBC Northern Ireland]] radio released an interview with Michael Christopher Hayes, a self-confessed bomb maker active within the Birmingham IRA unit in the 1970s. In this interview, Hayes (who had been named as a perpetrator of the bombings in the 1990 Granada documentary drama ''Who Bombed Birmingham?'') stated he took "[[collective responsibility]]" for the bombings,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-40569778|title=Birmingham Six Member Paddy Hill Says Apology 'Insult'|access-date=July 16, 2017|newspaper=BBC News|date=July 11, 2017}}</ref> although he refused to name who had planted the bombs in each of the locations. Nonetheless, he did state: "We were horrified when we heard, because it was not intended. I personally defused the third bomb. It was not the intention of the IRA to kill innocent people ... It wouldn't have been done if that was the case."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-40553803|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: IRA Suspect Hayes Issues Apology|access-date=11 July 2017|newspaper=BBC News|date=10 July 2017}}</ref>
[[File:Birmingham Pub Bombings Memorial - Birmingham New Street Station (45092365705).jpg|thumb|Memorial to those killed in the Birmingham pub bombings, unveiled outside [[Birmingham New Street railway station|New Street Station]] on 21 November 2018.]]
* On 18 November 2020, a 65-year-old man was arrested in Belfast under section 41 of the [[Terrorism Act 2000]] in connection with the bombings. He was released the following day without charge.<ref>{{cite news|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings Suspect Released|date=20 November 2020|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-55013054|publisher=BBC News|access-date=16 May 2021}}</ref>

==Memorials==
A memorial plaque for the victims stands in the grounds of Birmingham's [[St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham|Saint Philip's Cathedral]]. This plaque is engraved with the names of the 21 people killed in the Birmingham pub bombings, and bears the inscription: "The people of Birmingham remember them and those who suffered."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2009/11/21/birmingham-pub-bombings-families-remember-victims-in-moving-service-97319-25222212/|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings: Families Remember Victims in Moving Service|date=21 November 2009|newspaper=Birmingham Mail|access-date=5 April 2010|archive-date=2 December 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091202131915/http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2009/11/21/birmingham-pub-bombings-families-remember-victims-in-moving-service-97319-25222212/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

A memorial commemorating those lost and wounded in the Birmingham pub bombings was unveiled on 21 November 2018. Commissioned by the Birmingham Irish Association and designed by a local artist named Anuradha Patel, this memorial consists of three steel trees, and is located outside the city's [[Birmingham New Street railway station|New Street Station]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Birmingham Pub Bombings Memorial Offers 'Peace and Hope'|newspaper=BBC |date= 21 November 2018|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-46289920 |access-date= 22 November 2018}}</ref>

Several survivors and relatives of those killed in the Birmingham pub bombings have visited the [[Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation]] in the Republic of Ireland in an effort to come to terms with the events of 21 November 1974. The Glencree Centre is a charitable organisation whose stated aim is to promote peace and reconciliation in Britain and Ireland as a response to the Troubles. One of those who has visited the Glencree Centre, Maureen Carlin (who survived the ''Mulbery Bush'' bombing), said in 2009 that she had spoken with two former IRA members, who referred to the Birmingham pub bombings as a mistake for which the IRA would never publicly admit responsibility.<ref>[http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-pub-bombings-survivor-told-244136/ "Birmingham Pub Bombings Survivor Told by IRA Man That Atrocity was 'a Mistake'"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714133416/http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-pub-bombings-survivor-told-244136|date=14 July 2015}}. ''Birmingham Mail'', 22 November 2009.</ref>

==Media==
<!---
 PLEASE DO NOT ADD SONG REFERENCES OR OTHER TRIVIA HERE. IT DOES NOT BELONG AND WILL BE REMOVED WITH NO FURTHER DISCUSSION. TRIVIA IS INAPPROPRIATE PER THE PROJECT GOVERNING THIS ARTICLE.--->

===Film===
The made-for-TV film ''Who Bombed Birmingham?'' was first broadcast in 1990. Directed by Mike Beckham, the film is directly inspired by the painstaking efforts of then-journalist Chris Mullin to prove the six men convicted of the bombing had been the victims of a miscarriage of justice, as detailed in his 1986 book ''Error of Judgement: The Truth about the Birmingham Bombings''. The film casts [[John Hurt]] as Mullin and [[Martin Shaw]] as Granada Television ''[[World in Action]]'' producer and fellow researcher Ian McBride, as they investigate the convictions of the "Birmingham Six."<ref>{{cite news|title=British TV Names Bombing Suspects|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/29/world/british-tv-names-bombing-suspects.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|last=Rule|first=Sheila|access-date=5 October 2021|date=29 March 1990}}</ref>

===Books===
* ''Encyclopedia of Modern Murder 1962–1982'', by Colin Wilson ({{ISBN|978-0-517-66559-6}})
* ''Error of Judgement: The Truth about the Birmingham Bombings'', by Chris Mullin ({{ISBN|978-1-853-71365-1}})
* ''Forever Lost, Forever Gone'', by Patrick Hill ({{ISBN|978-0-747-52125-9}})
* ''Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children Who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles'', by David McKittrick ({{ISBN|978-1-780-57649-7}})
* ''The Birmingham Bombs'', by Brian Gibson ({{ISBN|978-0-859-92070-4}})
* ''The Birmingham Six and Other Cases: Victims of Circumstance'', by Louis Blom-Cooper ({{ISBN|978-0-715-62813-3}})

===Television===
* The British investigative current affairs programme ''World in Action'' has broadcast a total of six episodes focusing upon the Birmingham pub bombings between 1985 and 1991. The last of these episodes, ''World in Action Special: The Birmingham Six – Their Own Story'', was broadcast on 18 March 1991—four days after the release of the Birmingham Six<ref>''Public Issue Television: World in Action 1963–98'' {{ISBN|978-0-719-06255-1}} p. 106</ref>—and was later nominated for a [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts|BAFTA]] award.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://awards.bafta.org/award/1992/television/flaherty-documentary-award|title=BAFTA Awards: Television – Flaherty Documentary Award (1992)|date=1 January 2011|access-date=30 September 2021|website=awards.bafta.org}}</ref>
* The [[BBC]] have commissioned a 30-minute documentary focusing upon the Birmingham pub bombings. This documentary, ''Who Murdered Maxine?'', was first broadcast in December 2013 and focuses upon the ongoing campaign by relatives of one of those killed in the Birmingham pub bombings, Maxine Hambleton, to reopen the investigation into the bombings and their ongoing efforts to raise public awareness of their campaign.<ref>{{cite news|title=BBC One: Who Murdered Maxine?|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03j0pnt|access-date=1 October 2021|work=[[BBC News]]|date=2 December 2013}}</ref>
<!---PLEASE DO NOT ADD SONG REFERENCES OR OTHER TRIVIA HERE. IT DOES NOT BELONG AND WILL BE REMOVED WITH NO FURTHER DISCUSSION. TRIVIA IS INAPPROPRIATE PER THE PROJECT GOVERNING THIS ARTICLE.--->

==See also==
*[[Chronology of Provisional Irish Republican Army actions (1970–79)]]
*[[List of miscarriage of justice cases]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=n}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Cited works and further reading==
*{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Chalk|year=2012|title=The Encyclopedia of Terrorism – Volume 1|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn= 978-0-313-30895-6}}
*{{cite book|first=Jennifer|last=Davis|year=2013|title=Wrongly Convicted: Miscarriages of Justice|publisher=RW Press Ltd|isbn= 978-1-909-28440-1}}
*{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Geraghty|year=1998|title=The Irish War: The Hidden Conflict Between the IRA and British Intelligence|publisher=Harper Collins|isbn=0-8018-6456-9|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/irishwarhiddenco00mrto}}
*{{cite book|first=Brian|last=Gibson|year=1976|title=The Birmingham Bombs|publisher=Barry Rose Law|isbn= 978-0-859-92070-4}}
*{{cite book|first=Patrick|last=Hill|year=1996|title=Forever Lost, Forever Gone|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn= 978-0-747-52125-9}}
*{{cite book|first=Gary|last=McGladdery|year=2006|title=The Provisional IRA in England: The Bombing Campaign 1973–1997|publisher=Irish Academic Press Ltd|isbn= 978-0-716-53374-0}}
*{{cite book|first=Chris|last=Mullin|year=1997|title=Error of Judgement: The Truth about the Birmingham Bombings|publisher=Poolbeg Press|isbn= 978-1-853-71365-1}}
* {{cite book|first=Jon|last=Robins|year=2018|title=Guilty Until Proven Innocent: The Crisis in Our Justice System|publisher=Biteback Publishing|isbn=978-1-785-90390-8}}
* {{cite book|first=Dominic|last=Sandbrook|year=2012|title=Seasons in the Sun: The Battle for Britain, 1974–1979|publisher=Allen Lane Publishers|isbn=978-0-141-03216-0}}
* {{cite book|first=Robert W.|last=White|year=2020|orig-date=2006|title=Ruairí Ó Brádaigh: The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-34708-4}}
*{{cite book|first=Colin|last=Wilson|year=1985|title=Encyclopedia of Modern Murder 1962–1982|publisher=Bonanza Books|isbn= 978-0-517-66559-6}}

== External links ==
* 1974 BBC news article [https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/21/newsid_2549000/2549953.stm describing the aftermath of the Birmingham pub bombings]
* [http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/news/whoever-bombed-birmingham-wouldnt-stand-8148218 News article and image galleries] relating to the Birmingham pub bombings
* [https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/24/newsid_2546000/2546983.stm Contemporary BBC news article] detailing the arrest of the Birmingham Six
* [http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/other/1974/faul76a.htm#confession2 Transcripts] of the false confessions given by the Birmingham Six
* [https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/14/newsid_2543000/2543613.stm Contemporary BBC news article] detailing the release of the Birmingham Six
* [http://www.glencree.ie/ ''Official website''] of the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation
* [http://www.justice4the21.co.uk/ ''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
* [https://amoolyarajappa.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/birmingham-pub-bombings-biggest-stain-on-birminghams-history-says-julie-hambleton-3/ 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 [https://web.archive.org/web/20080515122810/http://www.birmingham999.co.uk/ personal account] of the Birmingham pub bombings, written by a member of the [[West Midlands Fire Service]]
* 2013 ''[[Birmingham Mail]]'' article detailing the [http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/birmingham-pub-bombings-memorial-restored-6316734 renovation of the memorial] to the victims of the Birmingham pub bombings

{{Portal bar|Law|England}}
{{The Troubles|state=collapsed}}
{{PIRA}}

[[Category:1970s in Birmingham, West Midlands|Pub bombings]]
[[Category:1974 building bombings]]
[[Category:1974 in England]]
[[Category:1974 murders in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:20th-century mass murder in England]]
[[Category:Attacks on bars in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Building bombings in England]]
[[Category:Crimes adapted into films]]
[[Category:Improvised explosive device bombings in 1974]]
[[Category:Mass murder in 1974]]
[[Category:Massacres in England]]
[[Category:Murder in Birmingham, West Midlands|Pub bombings]]
[[Category:November 1974 in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Provisional IRA bombings in England]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents in Birmingham]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in 1974]]