Birmingham pub bombs were just a mistake, not murder says ex-IRA boss
A FORMER IRA terror chief claims the victims of the Birmingham pub bombings were not murdered, but died as a result of a legitimate campaign which went ‘tragically wrong’. Twenty one people were killed and 220 injured in two explosions minutes apart at the Mulberry Bush and the Tavern in the Town in November 1974.
Yesterday former IRA intelligence boss Kieran Conway, asserted that the attacks were the work of an autonomous cell of volunteers, done without the authority of leaders in Ireland.
He claimed his ‘heart went out’ to the victims – but refused to name two men responsible for the atrocities who are still alive.
Conway alleged at a longawaited inquest that he had been left ‘ shocked and appalled’ at the bombings. They had risked destroying the IRA – such was the public revulsion at the huge loss of life.
He insisted that the pubs were not legitimate targets because they were not frequented by soldiers. And warnings designed to give police a chance to clear the buildings failed because phone boxes had been vandalised.
Astonishingly, he also claimed that the deaths were not murders, arguing that the victims were killed ‘accidentally’ during a war against the British state.
He said that in the aftermath of the blasts, an ‘ OC’ – officer commanding – and his second-in-com- mand were hauled before a so-called IRA court which cleared them after hearing of the problems with the phones. They could have been expelled or even executed, he said.
Conway said: ‘The bombings had been careless, if not downright incompetent.’
Asked if the victims had been murdered, he declared: ‘It was an IRA operation that went tragically wrong. It should not have happened. It was outside the range of permissible targets but in my opinion it was not murder.’
In 1975, six men – the Birmingham Six – were convicted over the blasts but acquitted 16 years later. The attacks remain Britain’s largest unsolved terror crime. The families of the victims have waited 44 years for new inquests, which finally began last month.
Conway, who was asked by the coroner to give evidence, was a member of the IRA for more than 20 years from 1970. He has admitted to being involved in ‘five or six’ bombings and shootouts. He also carried out armed robberies in England to raise funds but left after becoming ‘disillusioned’.
Now a criminal defence solicitor, he appeared via video link from a secure location in Ireland.
The hearing was interrupted when his phone alarm went off – to the tune of Abba’s Dancing Queen. He said he had set it to remind him to leave to feed a parking meter.
Once the hearing resumed, he admitted the attack came when the group was trying to ‘catch the public’s attention’ because it was felt the UK was ‘losing interest’.
In a tense exchange with the lawyer for the mother of the attack’s youngest victim, Conway was accused of withholding the names of two bombers who were still alive. Barrister Kevin Morgan was representing Hilda Turner. Her son Tommy was 16 when he was killed.
Mr Morgan said Mrs Turner was unable to attend court because of ‘the trauma she has experienced’.
Conway said he would do anything he could to help the families understand what happened – apart from name the IRA pair.
Coroner Sir Peter Thornton QC will not examine who was responsible for the atrocities. The hearing in Birmingham continues.
‘Downright incompetent’