Archives reveal outrage in ‘bomb’ case
JOHN WALKER
PADDY HILL
THE Thatcher government was reluctant to free the Birmingham Six because of pressure from Tory hardliners and concerns it would cause a “scandal”, it has emerged.
A Home Office official admitted the fears to Irish diplomats 30 years ago.
The Irish government was leaned on not to pursue their case with the European Court of Human Rights, declassified notes say.
PM Margaret Thatcher’s government also feared a backlash from the media.
Paddy Hill, Gerry Hunter, Johnny Walker, Hugh Callaghan, Richard McIlkenny and Billy
Power were freed in
HUGH CALLAGHAN 1991 for one of the worst miscarriages of justice after being falsely convicted in 1975 for the Birmingham pub bombings that killed 21 people in November 1974.
In May 1989, Irish diplomats met with John Chilcot, then a key adviser in the Home Office about the case, in London. The meeting was “understood to be
off the record and confidential”,
MARGARET Thatcher grabbed her handbag and “stormed out” of a meeting with the Belgian PM over his refusal to
Thatcher in 1989
The Birmingham Six stand with MP Chris Mullin at the Old Bailey in 1991
RICHARD McILKENNY according to notes released into the National Archives. The Irish pressed for an “amelioration of prison conditions” and a release date as soon as possible.
Chilcot, who later went on to chair the Iraq Inquiry, was told the Irish government was under pressure to bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights “but had consciously exercised extradite an Irish priest suspected of IRA links, files show. An Irish diplomat’s report reveals that fiery Thatcher “terminated” the
GERRY HUNTER
restraint”. Chilcot responded “referring to the constraints on the Home Secretary’s freedom of manoeuvre”.
The notes state: “Chilcot – choosing his words carefully – spoke of the need to ‘avoid giving scandal’.
“There is clearly a concern in the Home Office about possible tabloid exploitation of any early release of the Six, and Chilcot implied nervousness about criticism from hardliners within the Conservative Party.”
One of the Irish diplomats present suggested successive de-categorisations from Category A prisoners to Category C, which “should help to protect the Home Secretary [Douglas Hurd] against tabloid excesses”. meeting with Wilfried Martens at a European Council summit by saying: “We have nothing further to talk about, you and I.”
WILLIAM POWER