Ex-MP Mullin confirms names of two suspects in pub bombs
Journalist who helped free Birmingham Six breaks silence on what he knows
FORMER MP Chris Mullin, who championed the release of the Birmingham Six, has for the first time confirmed the names of several people he believes took part in the Birmingham pub bombings.
He identifies men who he claims to know for certain took part in the making and planting of the bombs. Most significantly, he confirms that James Francis Gavin was one of two men who planted the bombs.
He also confirms Mick Murray was one of the bomb makers and who also made the notoriously delayed warning phone call to the Birmingham Post.
Journalist Mr Mullin makes his claims less than two weeks before new inquests into the 21 victims begin.
But the identity of those responsible for attacking city centre bars The Mulberry Bush and The Tavern in The Town, will not be considered by the inquests because the issue of the perpetrators has been ruled out by Coroner Sir Peter Thornton.
Apart from those who died, 182 were injured in the attacks on November 21, 1974.
Mr Mullin previously always refused to name those he believes responsible, insisting: “Journalists do not disclose their sources.”
But now he says: “I no longer have any compunction about identifying two of the men involved, who are now dead.”
However, he will still not name the man who he refers to in his book, Error of Judgment, as the ‘young planter’ who is still alive. He said: “I know the names of the bombers. Four men were involved: two bomb- makers and two planters. More than 30 years ago two of them described to me what they’d done in some detail.”
Mullin revealed that, as part of his inquiries, he visited Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams in July 1985. He said: “I didn’t expect him to deliver up the real bombers; I wanted him to indicate that he had no objection to my interviewing particular individuals, whose names I would put to him.
“I wanted especially to talk to Michael Murray, who, having served most of his 12-year sentence for conspiracy to cause explosions, had recently been released and was living in Dublin. Murray was not at all keen to meet me, but agreed after the intervention of intermediaries.
“I met him three times. Despite his initial reluctance he provided an account of what happened on the night of the bombings.
“Two men had made the bombs and two others had planted them in the pubs. The targets had not been the pubs, but the buildings they were part of: one was in the Rotunda, a local landmark, and the other was underneath the New Street office of the Inland Revenue.
“At that meeting Murray declined to discuss his own role, but at our second meeting he was frank. He was one of the men who had made the bombs and he had phone call.”
Mr Mullin said he learned from other sources that one of the planters was James Francis Gavin. It was from his house in Bordesley Green the bombers had set out.
He said: “By the time I was told about him, Gavin was in Portlaoise Prison, near Dublin, serving life for a murder committed in 1977. A pipe layer by profession, he was married to an English woman, served in the British army for three years and lived in Britain for many more.
“During the course of my three-hour interview with him he readily admitted to his involvement in the IRA’s West
given
the warning