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BBC looks back at Birmingham blasts
by Brendan Farrell
 A TV crew is putting the finishing touches to a new documentary to mark the 30th anniversary of the Birmingham pub bombings.
BBC TV in the Midlands will be screening a 30-minute programme on Sunday November 21 to commemorate the anniversary of one of the worst Provisional IRA atrocities in Britain.
Some 21 people were killed and another 182 injured in 1974 when two bombs exploded in adjacent pubs in Birmingham city centre. Many of the victims were Irish or of Irish descent.
The first bomb exploded in the Tavern in the Town with another device going off in the Mulberry Bush pub just two minutes later.
The bombings were said to be in retaliation for a ban on a local funeral for James McDaid — a member of the IRA who had been killed a week previously when a bomb he was placing in Coventry exploded prematurely.
The explosions led to the worst backlash the Irish community in Birmingham had ever experienced — and also one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history when six men were later wrongfully jailed for the bombings.
Within hours of the explosions retaliations began as attempts were made to set fire to the Birmingham Irish Centre in Digbeth.
Irish pubs, banks and other organisations were also targeted with fire bombs and graffiti.
Countless threatening phone calls were made to members of the Irish community and Irish people in the city were treated as outcasts for months.
The BBC documentary will take an in-depth look at all aspects of the bombings — including the aftermath and subsequent backlash.
Producer Maggie Fogarty — whose parents hail from Dublin and Belfast — said: “I hope this programme will provide an overall account of the details at the time and after the bombings. It will include a focus on the huge backlash the Irish community in the city had to deal with.
“We have interviewed several high-profile figures and members of Birmingham’s Irish community, including second-generation Irish.”
Those interviewed include Birmingham’s first Irish-born Mayor Councillor Mike Nangle, Billy Power — one of the of the Birmingham Six who were wrongly jailed for the bombings — and Irish Post Midlands correspondent Brendan Farrell.
- The programme will be shown on BBC in the Midlands on Sunday November 21 at 11.05pm.
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