Named in court after 45 years, IRA thugs who bombed Birmingham
But sneering terrorist boasts: They’ll never face justice
A CONVICTED IRA bomber named the men responsible for the Birmingham pub attacks in court for the first time yesterday – then callously asked: ‘What’s the point? They can’t be prosecuted anyway.’
The man – identified only as Witness O – told a long-awaited inquest into the deaths of the 21 victims that he had been given permission to reveal the names by the current head of the IRA.
Witness O named a four-man group including Seamus McLoughlin, the so- called ‘officer commanding’ the Birmingham cell and responsible for selecting the targets.
Giving evidence via videolink from a secure location in the Irish Republic, Witness O named Mick Murray as the man who made the bombs. Both men are now dead.
Incredibly, he claimed he gave police McLoughlin’s name days after the blasts in 1974 in disgust at the huge loss of civilian lives, but said nothing had been done.
Witness O was initially reluctant to name more names, saying: ‘ One of them is still alive and he is no harm to anyone now.’
When pressed by a lawyer to tell families ‘in pain’ for 45 years, he brazenly replied: ‘OK, but I don’t see what difference it would make because the British Government has signed an agreement. There is nobody going to be charged with this atrocity because the British Government have signed an agreement with the IRA to get a ceasefire.’
He eventually gave the names of Michael Hayes, who is still alive, and James Gavin.
Explosions minutes apart at the Mulberry Bush and the Tavern In The Town in November 1974 left 21 dead and 220 injured.
Warnings were reportedly received only eight minutes before the first blast – and did not give a precise location – so authorities had no time to clear the packed pubs. Witness O took part in bombing campaigns in England in the 1970s but was in jail at the time of the pub attacks and claimed he had no idea about them.
But he said Murray later told him the bombers had given advance warning – and incredibly claimed MI5 ‘let it happen’ to discredit the IRA.
Witness O said he approached the current leader of the IRA to get permission to speak to the inquest and reveal the bombers.
But he refused to give the man’s name. Asked why, he replied: ‘Because he’s the head of the IRA. I could be shot dead.’
He told the jury his own life was now at risk. ‘There are dissidents starting up, hot heads,’ he said.
All the men have been named before in connection with the bombings, but never in a formal setting. The families of the victims, some of whom wept in court, have long campaigned to get the names in the public domain – hoping it would put pressure on West Midlands police to act.
In 1975, six men – the Birmingham Six – were convicted but acquitted 16 years later. Murray stood trial alongside the six but was not charged with murder.
The hearing at the Birmingham Civil Justice Centre is set to last another two weeks. Speaking afterwards, DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said Sinn Fein party president Mary Lou McDonald needed to explain ‘how the head of the IRA in Dublin can give “permission” for an individual to be named, when she tells us the IRA doesn’t exist’.
The inquest comes days after veterans reacted with fury when it was announced a former British soldier would be charged with murder in connection with the Bloody Sunday shootings in 1972.
‘There is nobody going to be charged’