Birmingham Pub Bombings

The 1974 bombing of two pubs in the city of Birmingham, England, thought to be the work of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), killed 21 people. This attack caused more fatalities than any of the other attacks on English soil during the 30-year struggle.

Since the late 1960s, conflict had been raging in Northern Ireland between the province's Roman Catholics, who wished Northern Ireland to become part of the Republic of Ireland, and the province's Protestants, who wished it to remain a part of the United Kingdom. Armed paramilitary groups that had sprung up in both communities were prepared to use violence to protect themselves and achieve their ends. The largest armed organization on the republican, or nationalist, side (i.e., claiming to represent Catholics) was and is the IRA. By the start of 1974, the leaders of the IRA had come to believe that the British were growing weary of their involvement in the conflict, going so far as to declare 1974 “The Year of Victory.” They felt that a serious escalation of violence would push the British into withdrawal. Accordingly, the IRA began a series of terrorist attacks on Britain's mainland.

The IRA began its bombing campaign in February 1974, by planting a bomb on a bus in Yorkshire, England, that was transporting soldiers and their families; 12 people were killed, including two young children. Other attacks, including one at the Tower of London, followed over the course of the year, killing six and injuring scores. On November 21, two men hid a duffel bag containing a bomb at the Mulberry Bush, a popular pub in downtown Birmingham. They left the Mulberry Bush after a few minutes and walked to another nearby pub, Talk of the Town, where they left a second bomb. It was a Saturday night, and both bars were crowded. At 8:11 P.M., a vague warning was phoned in to the Birmingham Post and Mail offices; the bomb at the Mulberry Bush exploded six minutes later, the Talk of the Town bomb a few minutes after that. Ten people were killed in the Mulberry Bush blast, 11 in the Talk of the Town, and 168 were injured in the explosions.

Following the bombings, anti-Irish sentiment ran high in Britain—especially in Birmingham, which has a substantial Irish immigrant community. By November 24, six Irish immigrants, all longtime Birmingham residents, had been arrested and charged with the bombings. Hugh Callaghan, Paddy Joe Hill, Gerry Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, Billy Power, and Johnny Walker became known as the Birmingham Six. In what was the largest mass-murder trial in British history, the six men were convicted on August 5, 1975, and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1991, after a long campaign on their behalf, a court overturned all six convictions, citing police mishandling of the evidence and indications that the confessions had been coerced.

The Birmingham bombings also prompted the British legislature to pass the Prevention of Terrorism Act, a law that the home secretary described as “draconian.” For instance, the act allowed a suspect to be arrested and held for up to a week without charge and for persons suspected of being terrorists to be summarily expelled from Great Britain. Although intended as a temporary measure, the act, which was amended in 1989 and 1996, is still in force.