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Pub Bombings

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hi I remember the great out rage against the Irish here in Cambridge, I always felt so sorry for the hard working and good Irish people I knew and drank with. I also understood the feelings of the other side, the bus driver killed in London the nineties was someone I knew from my old regiment, we lost 7 dead from my Battalion, and shared their sentiments. Although catholic and having my mom born in Kildare, and nanny from Monastreven, going into paroxisums of anger whenever she heard the name of Eamon de Valera she called the( butcher of the Irish and Ireland) and it has to be said some of the Irish lads I knew saying them self's that these people are murderers and how they hated them.
A very sad tale from a long long sadness between the Irish and English the most inter married cultures on the planet. I was in Belfast and Londonderry and Dublin in 2008 and was astounded how they all seem so united now.
paul
 
I dropped into The Mulberry Bush for a swift half at 5.45 before performing overtime at The Royal Mail Sorting Office. We were told to get home but not to go through the city centre by the PO management.I didnt know what had happened till I got home. I still feel uneasy when I have to use the Tavern (Yard of Ale) in The Town it brings back too many memories
 
I remember that night well. I was 17 years old and had met my friend on the evening in Digbeth and we walked up into the town. We were in the underpass under the rotunda, when we heard some lads whistling us from behind and as we turned around the first bomb went off in the Mulberry Bush, throwing one of the lads through a shop window. The ground shook, like an earthquake. My friend went into shock and I struggled to help her up the steps to the Odeon, New Street. When we reached the top of the steps, we were met by the police, who told us to run along New Street. The doors of the Odeon were flung open and people started streaming out. Although there were lots of people around, I don't recall any noise other than the sound of the bomb exploding. As we heading down New Street as instructed the second bomb went off straight in front of us. It was horrendous not knowing which way to run. I remember clearly wondering whether all the shops had bombs in them. We turned around and ran back the way we had come, crossing the road and on the corner we met my friends sister and her fiance, who were heading to the Tavern to meet friends, some of whom were killed in the blast. The shock must have then hit me because I don't remember how we got there, but someone took us to a pub by Moor Street Station, where the landlord gave us both a free brandy and ordered us a taxi to my friends house. The taxi driver refused any payment. My parents had heard on the news about the bombing and were frantic and they eventually came to collect me. My friend was Irish... and her family were treated badly by everyone over the next few months. So many years ago, yet still a fresh memory.......
 
Minski
how terrible for you and your friends what a horrendous end to a happy night out, I never understood what these people were trying to express or relay to the world to destroy so many innocents, with latest attroceity in russia and where next, I know how the totally innocent Irish were treated this unfortunately is human nature.
paul
 
This is the first time I have seen this thread and I have sat and read it all. It has brought back sad memories...... not that I have ever really forgotten them.. I knew a lovely young girl that was lost that night, she had worked with my Mom and was the sister of a lad I had dated for a time.......such a tragic loss of lives
 
I have always held the opinion that a bomb detonated by any group of people with a "cause" to persue can not know if they killing or injuring a friend or foe in a crowd, a bomb with the ability to do that does not exist they are just killers. Len.
 
Remembering the people and families of those killed and hurt in the Birmingham Pub bombings 37 years ago today.
 
Wendy said:
Remembering the people and families of those killed and hurt in the Birmingham Pub bombings 37 years ago today.
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Thanks for posting this Wendy...It doesnt seem like 37 years

Thinking of them all .......especially Jane Elizabeth Davis :( R.I.P
 
What terrible night that was. My moms neighbour,s son was killed. It was her only child so i believe. Remembering all those families who had loved ones killed or mamed .
 
I wasn't living in B'ham at the time, my only connection with the City being my (then) boyfriend, now husband.
I had only been to B'ham a handful of times and on the night I was miles away at college. It all seemed surreal to me - places that I walked past just a week or so before had been destroyed in a moment.

Reading this thread has been a real education for an 'outsider'. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and memories.
 
I would also like to remember all those who suffered that night. Really can't believe it's 37 years. I remember that whole day so clearly. I passed the rotunda just a few short minutes before the explosion. My thoughts are with those who lost loved ones, and the many that were left damaged by their injuries.
 
My dad walked into a city pub on his way home from work during the war and asked the barman for a pint. "You must be joking" was the reply "look out here". He opened a door behind the bar and there was a huge crater where the rear of the pub used to be.
 
RIP all the victims of this awful night and thoughts of all those affected by the bombings.
I was only 13 and we had been on a school trip to Brum, left along New Street in the coach just before the Mulberry Bush bomb went off, the blast rocked the coach. My friend was on a second coach, a few minutes behind us and their windows were broken, luckily no-one was hurt and both coaches got home, but our parents had heard the news, as there were no mobiles then, they didn't now if we were safe or not, we didn't now what the blast was, so it was a very emotional group getting off the coach.
Sue
 
HI ;
How can any of us forget that wicked night ad never will;
my recollection of it was i wanted to go there with my wife as i often did but as luck would have it ;
but unfortuneletly my mother in-law whom is of irisg breed and the father inlaw whom are both well known
asked my wife to come to bingo at the Atlas in stechford i disagreed and wanted to go to the pub as wenormaly did
but i ended up argueing with her and saying know but in the end she prevailed and got her way
and i had to give way and we went to the atlas andit was there during the session that it was announced about the bombing they looked at me and said its just as well you came
after that evening people whom knew my inlaws stoppped talking for a whilefor weeks just after that
the same as she worked at smiths stone and knights in nechells
they never got the reall culprits whom committed this crime astonian
 
I was in the Tavern in the Town the night of the bombings & left very shortly before it went off- only because we had wanted to watch 'Monty Python' that night & needed to catch the train home- I will always be grateful to John Cleese et al for this. We certainly would have been in there if it hadn't been on. I remember laughing at some school girls standing by the juke box with coats over their school uniform, drinking. I learnt that was where the bomb has been placed. They had only just started their drinks and can only assume they were in there when it went off. I often wondered what had happened to them. I also heard of a pregnant woman who was in the Tennessee Pancake House next door whose baby was born deaf due to the blast. Very very sad times.
My future husband (not known at the time) was up the road in the Pen & Wig had complained that the gents was overflowing to be told by the management that he was lucky to be swimming in p**s as they were swimming in blood up New Street. Someone was definitely looking after us that night..........
 
Thank you for telling us your story The Tavern was such a popular pub used by many youngsters I suppose thats why it was chosen. Awful times and so many stories of people who had a close shave including my husband. I often wonder how the people who survived got on it must have been a terrible trauma.
 
It was not only the Pubs at risk, I worked for PO Telephones at the time (now BT) and was on after hours call out for emergency lines (police, hospitals etc...), I was asked if I would volunteer to fit a temporay phone in the PO main sorting office (I think it was Severn Street) for the Army bomb disposal team who were checking on a suspect device, which I did, whether it was genuine or not I do not know as I heard no more, it was 2 days after the pub bombings. Eric
 
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I was sitting in my army married quarter when the newsflash about the bombing came on the radio.
It frightened the life out of me as I knew that my dad used to go into the Mulberry Bush after he'd been to Gt Charles street to give blood. Mercifully it wasn't his night to go.

The Seventies were a weird time for us. We shared a barracks with the Royal Irish Rangers and lived in harmony with them, yet we did four tours of N Ireland during that time.
 
what Regt were you Baz, and were you based in "Ballykelly" or "Derry", my Regt did 5 tours between 69, 1975.
paul
 
paul stacey said:
what Regt were you Baz, and were you based in "Ballykelly" or "Derry", my Regt did 5 tours between 69, 1975.
paul
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I was in the Artillery Paul. (Apart from 3 yrs QOH).

We did Andersonstown in '73, Long Kesh '74, Londonderry '76, (I was in Fort George) and Lurgan in '77.

I guess you were Infantry ?
 
I was working at the Longbridge Austin factory that night, I was on the transport dept, when the news broke there were some nasty incidents involving hot heads who wanted to vent their anger against the Irish workers, I saw Panda cars inside the works patrolling, and I believe some workers were sent home for their own safety.It was a very sad and tense time.
 
I remember the pub bombings ,something i will never forget. I've drank in both pubs and know how confined the space is so i really felt for all those who lost their lives on that terrible night .At the time i was at collage not far from Aston Uni and the next day had to pass the Mulberry bush and the ring road was cordand off,it was a strange day, you could feel the tension at collage,everyone was so quiet.On the Sunday i arranged to go up town to Silver Blades ice rink and would you believe it, we had a bomb alert. there was no panic everyone just calmly left via the exit doors and onto the street,thankfully it was a false alarm.Town after that was a quiet place for a while, lets hope such a bad deed will never happen again.
 
Hi Astonian, yes this is for real, it's been on the TV and BBCradioWM.

lf enough people sign it then it surely will mature and be discussed in Parliament.

Then if there is any justice left in this world it will be reinvestigated.

Thanks for your good wishes Astonian, Have a great day.
 
HI FLASHBANG
Thanks for your feed back on this as this is the first time i have heard of it ; i would certaily sign it if i hought it would come to bear fruit;
but i don.t think our goverment will want to for political reasons; after reading this today on your thread irelayed this to some-one and the discussion ; but his person gave me a big insight to the old days of england and the certain parts of the irish goverment ; but i wil not talk politics
on this site as much as i would like to but its not allowed any way i was working a irish pub around the corner from thee two pubs at the time of the mulbery went off i was also involved with the commutity so i know a good amount about it



astonian;;
 
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Well Astonian, there's only one way to find out if it will bear fruit......


Feed it with a signature and see what happens.

There is also a facebook page dedicated to this, search FB for Maxine Hambleton.


All the best mate.
 
Flashbang, I have seen the news and signed the petition, although sadly, likeAstonian,I'm not sure it will come to anything, despite all the new forensics etc that were used to exonerate the first people accused of the crime, but lets hope the same can throw some new info out and give the bereaved families and the victims some peace. It must be dreadful thinking that there are murderers still walking free while your family are suffering.
So good luck to Julia Hambleton, I shall be watching with interest.
Sue
 
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