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Police seek to quiz ex-IRA man over Birmingham bombings

Kieran Conway
Kieran Conway Kieran Conway

A DUBLIN solicitor who wrote a book about his IRA past has revealed that British police have sought to question him about the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings.

Former Long Kesh prisoner, Kieran Conway, yesterday told The Irish News that he had received a letter from West Midlands detectives seeking to speak to him about his knowledge of the IRA attacks on The Mulberry Bush and The Tavern in The Town.

Mr Conway added that while he would be happy to attend an interview where British police would be present, he had nothing to add to what he had written in his book Southside Provisional: From Freedom Fighter to the Four Courts.

However, he also stressed that he would not be prepared to name senior IRA figures who were in control of the organisations campaign in Britain when the attacks took place.

He added that the names of those who alleged to have planted the explosives had been in the public domain for some time and were already available to investigators.

The author, who studied law after quitting the IRA and Sinn Fin in 1993, made headlines last year after admitting for the first time that the Provisionals had carried out the bombings.

The attacks were in response to the death of Belfast-born IRA man James McDade, who was killed while attempting to plant a bomb at Coventry telephone exchange.

In his book, Mr Conway said that IRA chiefs had known that the six Irish men arrested after the bombings were innocent from the very start. The men, who would become known as the Birmingham Six, spent 16 years in prison before being freed.

After the launch of the book, West Midlands Chief Constable Chris Sims said police would be reviewing its contents to determine what action is appropriate.

However, Mr Sims last month admitted it was unlikely that a new investigation would take place.

The Justice 4 the 21 group, which was set up by Brian and Julie Hambleton who lost their sister Maxine in the bombings, is spear-heading the lobby for the attacks to be reinvestigated.