Man arrested over 1974 Birmingham pub bombings
Families of the dead and injured renew their call for a full public inquiry into the atrocities
A 65-YEAR- OLD former labourer was last night being questioned on suspicion of involvement in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings.
Michael Patrick Reilly was arrested shortly after dawn at his home in Belfast by officers from West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, supported by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. It came just days before the 46th anniversary of the atrocities that claimed 21 lives and injured more than 200 people when the IRA detonated bombs at the Mulberry Bush and Tavern In The Town pubs in Birmingham city centre.
Six men who were jailed for the attack in 1975 had their convictions quashed in 1991, after the exposure of one of the most serious miscarriages of justice in British legal history.
Last year at a fresh inquest into the 21 deaths, a former IRA member named Seamus Mcloughlin, Mick Murray, James Gavin and Michael Hayes as having carried out the atrocities. Three are now dead and Hayes, 69, who lives in Dublin, is understood to be seriously ill.
Responding to the allegations that he had been involved, Mr Hayes said he had not. He said: “You have to have proof, you can’t go into a court without proof. I didn’t do anything, I literally, I didn’t do it. I don’t care who believes it or not. I’ll probably go down in history as the perpetrator but I’m not, see I know it and those people that know me, know I wouldn’t do it.”
Mr Reilly, who was born in England but later moved to Belfast, was first named as a suspect in the bombings in an ITV documentary in 2018.
In a statement issued at the time of the documentary, his lawyer vehemently denied the allegations, describing them as “completely unfounded”.
Solicitor Padraig Ó Muirigh said at the time: “These allegations are untrue and without any foundation. The naming of my client in this manner is akin to trial by media. My client has not been convicted of any offence in relation to the 1974 pub bombings. The best place for these serious allegations to be tested is within the criminal justice system and not via a television programme.
“My client is also very concerned that the identification of him in this manner has potential implications for the safety of both him and his family”.
Mr Reilly was also named by lawyers for the victims’ families at last year’s inquests. But when his name was put to the anonymous former IRA witness, he denied any knowledge of Mr Reilly’s involvement.
Last night officers were continuing to search Mr Reilly’s end-of-terrace home close to Belfast’s City Hospital.
Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine died in the bombings, said the latest development marked the first ray of hope for the families since the Birmingham Six were cleared. She said she had broken down in tears when a West Midlands officer contacted her.
She said: “We have had to fight all the way. The police hoped that this was all dead and buried, just like our loved ones, but we refused to give up. We see the renewed interest as a significant development in our campaign for justice. Having this development – whatever happens – does not in any way lessen our desire for a full public inquiry to be held.
“There are wider issues which need to be examined and so much that went wrong, like why six men were arrested for a crime they didn’t commit.”
Ms Hambleton added: “We have had to beg and campaign and give up our lives as we knew them to fight for justice – justice that was never facilitated by the authorities whose job it was to do so. How was it that for so long, after 21 people were blown up and 200 other innocent souls were injured, nobody was looking for the perpetrators?”
Paul Rowlands, whose father John Rowlands died in the Mulberry Bush, said it was a “positive step”. He added: “It is, however, just a step and it does not detract from the fact that we need a public inquiry.”
John “Cliff ” Jones, a postman at New Street station who had survived wounds during the Second World War, died in the Mulberry Bush blast. His 72-year-old son George said: “It’s something positive, and it’s happened just with the anniversary (of the bombings) coming up. I hope this time West Midlands Police is more efficient than the original investigation team were.”
In April last year, an inquest jury found a botched IRA warning call led to the deaths of the 21 people unlawfully killed in the atrocity. Last month Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, said she would consider a public inquiry and pledged to meet the victims’ families.