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===The Dead===
===The Dead===
Jane Davis, 17 ;
Jane Davis, 17 ;
+ - Desmond Reilly, 20;
+ - Desmond Reilly, 20;
+ - Eugene Reilly, 23 ;
+ - Eugene Reilly, 23 ;
+ - Maureen Roberts, 20;
+ - Maureen Roberts, 20;
+ - Marylin Nash, 22 ;
+ - Marylin Nash, 22 ;
+ - Pamela Palmer, 19 ;
+ - Pamela Palmer, 19 ;
+ - Stephen Whalley, 21;
+ - Stephen Whalley, 21;
+ - Lynn Bennett, 18 ;
+ - Lynn Bennett, 18 ;
+ - Anne Hayes, 19 ;
+ - Anne Hayes, 19 ;
+ - Michael Beasley, 30 ;
+ - Michael Beasley, 30 ;
+ - Maxine Hambleton, 18 ;
+ - Maxine Hambleton, 18 ;
+ - John Jones, 51 ;
+ - John Jones, 51 ;
+ - Charles Gray, 44 ;
+ - Charles Gray, 44 ;
+ - John Rowland, 46 ;
+ - John Rowland, 46 ;
+ - Stanley Bodman, 51 ;
+ - Stanley Bodman, 51 ;
+ - Trevor Thrupp, 33 ;
+ - Trevor Thrupp, 33 ;
+ - James Caddick, 40 ;
+ - James Caddick, 40 ;
+ - Paul Davis, 20 ;
+ - Paul Davis, 20 ;
+ - Neil March, 20 ;
+ - Neil March, 20 ;
+ - Thomas Chaytor, 28 (Died 28 November 1974) ;
+ - Thomas Chaytor, 28 (Died 28 November 1974) ;
+ - James Craig, 34 (Died 10 December 1974
+ - James Craig, 34 (Died 10 December 1974


==External links==
==External links==

Revision as of 17:14, 24 July 2007

Birmingham Pub Bombings
LocationBirmingham,
United Kingdom
Date21 November 1974
2014 - 2025 (GMT)
TargetPublic Houses in Birmingham
Attack type
Time bombs
Deaths21
Injured182
PerpetratorsProvisional Irish Republican Army

The Birmingham pub bombings were bombings by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA)[citation needed] in Birmingham, England on November 21, 1974 which killed 21 people. The devices were placed in two central Birmingham pubs: the Mulberry Bush, at the foot of the Rotunda, and the Tavern in the Town, a basement pub on New Street (now renamed the Yard of Ale).

The attacks

File:New Street Birmingham 700.jpg
New Street in central Birmingham facing the cylindrical Rotunda. The Tavern in the Town was in the basement of the building on the right.

At 20:14 a man with an Irish accent telephoned the Birmingham Post newspaper and said that there was a bomb in the 17 storey Rotunda office block housing the Mulberry Bush pub. Police went to the Rotunda to investigate. The police started to check the upper floors of the building but failed to clear the crowded pub which was situated at street level. Just twelve minutes later, at 20:25, the bomb exploded, devastating the crowded bar.

Warnings had just reached the equally crowded Tavern in the Town pub nearby,[2] when at 20:27 a second bomb there exploded. A third device, outside a bank on Hagley Road, failed to detonate.

Collectively, the attacks were the most injurious terrorist attacks in England until the July 2005 London bombings; 21 people were killed (ten at the Mulberry Bush and eleven at the Tavern in the Town) and 182 people were injured.

In the book 'Error of Judgement' Mick Murray (an IRA volunteer arrested later for other bombings) is quoted as telling Paddy Hill and Johnny Walker (two members of the Birmingham Six) that the phone boxes that were supposed to have been used by IRA volunteers to phone in a warning about the bombs were vandalised so they had to find another one some distance away.[1]

Six innocent men, [2][3] the Birmingham Six, were later accused of carrying out the attack, convicted and served sixteen years in jail before they had their convictions overturned due to police tampering with evidence.[4]

Thirty years after the bombings in 2004, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams expressed regret for the loss of life in the attacks, but no apology or admission of responsibility by the Provisional IRA has yet been made. [5]

Memorial

A memorial plaque, commemorating the victims of the bombings, is sited in the grounds of St. Philip's Cathedral, in the centre of Birmingham.

The Dead

Jane Davis, 17 ; + - Desmond Reilly, 20; + - Eugene Reilly, 23 ; + - Maureen Roberts, 20; + - Marylin Nash, 22 ; + - Pamela Palmer, 19 ; + - Stephen Whalley, 21; + - Lynn Bennett, 18 ; + - Anne Hayes, 19 ; + - Michael Beasley, 30 ; + - Maxine Hambleton, 18 ; + - John Jones, 51 ; + - Charles Gray, 44 ; + - John Rowland, 46 ; + - Stanley Bodman, 51 ; + - Trevor Thrupp, 33 ; + - James Caddick, 40 ; + - Paul Davis, 20 ; + - Neil March, 20 ; + - Thomas Chaytor, 28 (Died 28 November 1974) ; + - James Craig, 34 (Died 10 December 1974

References