Who bombed Birmingham? 50 years since the devastating pub bombings which killed 21 innocent people, the families of the bereaved are still asking the same question.
No-one has ever been brought to justice for the atrocity on November 21, 1974 - making it Britain's biggest unsolved mass murder in history. Six innocent men - known as the Birmingham Six - served more than 16 years in prison for the murders, but the real perpetrators have never been brought to justice.
For years, the Justice 4 the 21 campaign group has been calling for a full public enquiry to establish "truth, justice and accountability" for victims and their families. In 2019, a convicted IRA bomber named four men he says were responsible for the Birmingham pub bombings - here's what we know about them
READ MORE: 50 years on from the Birmingham Pub Bombings I still can't comprehend it
Mick Murray, James Francis Gavin, Seamus McCloughlin and Mick Hayes. These four men were named as part of the 2019 inquest into the pub bombings by an IRA bomber known as 'Witness O' - of the four, only Hayes is still alive today.
'Witness O' said he had been given permission to reveal these names by the current head of the IRA in Dublin. On the eve of the inquest, journalist and former MP Chris Mullin - who led a campaign that resulted in the release of the Birmingham Six - also named three of the four people he believed were responsible for the attacks - he named Murray, Gavin and Hayes.
Murray and Gavin were both dead by that time, and Hayes had never cooperated with him - so he felt no need to protect the anonymity of the three suspects. However, he witheld a fourth name - the man he called the 'Young Planter' – because he was still alive.
In a 2018 ITV documentary, another man - Michael Patrick Reilly - was named as a potential identity of the "Young Planter." However, Mullin declined to confirm or deny this claim. When Witness O was questioned about Reilly, they stated they had never heard of him.
Here's what we know about the four men named in the 2019 inquest - and their alleged roles in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings.
Mick Murray - the 'mastermind'
Mick Murray was a father-of-six and a labourer who lived on Watt Road, Erdington. He was a self-confessed member of the Birmingham branch of the IRA - not an offence at the time of his arrest.
In 2014, the Birmingham Mail named Mick Murray as the 'mastermind' behind the pub bombings. Online postings suggest Murray helped to make the bombs at a house in Bordesley Green, before transporting them to the city centre and handing them to the planters.
Murray was also responsible for the botched telephone warning received by the Birmingham Mail. Police were within a whisker of nailing Murray for the crime - he appeared in court alongside the Birmingham Six charged with lesser offences. He remained silent and stone-faced throughout the court proceedings.
Later, while in prison he told two of the Birmingham Six — the men wrongly convicted of the murders: "Sorry to see you lads in here. Nothing went right that night. The first telephone box was out of order." Chris Mullin interviewed Murray in the 1980s and asked him how felt about the events which transpired. Mullin said it was like "talking to a bomber pilot whose bombs had been intended for an industrial estate, but had gone astray over a residential area... His attitude was 'in war, these thing happen.'
On his release, he was welcomed back into the IRA and remained a member until he died. Murray died in 1999 in Tipperary following a stroke whilst attending a welcome home party for a recently released prisoner.
Mick Hayes - bomb maker
The only four named suspects still alive today, Michael Hayes is a self-confessed IRA bomb maker who has said he was part of the group responsible for the Birmingham pub bombings. In a 2017 BBC interview, Hayes apologised for that innocent people were killed and admitted 'collective responsibility' for the atrocity.
Hayes was in the IRA for more than 30 years in both Ireland and England and was a 'participant in the IRA’s activities in Birmingham'. Speaking to the BBC from his new home in Dublin, he said the bombs had not been intended to kill - adding that there had been a crucial eight minute delay before police were warned of their location.
He was arrested and questioned by West Midlands Police in 1974 but was released. When asked if he planted the bombs, he told BBC News NI: "No comment. No comment."
"I've been accused of a lot of things, without one shred of forensic evidence, without one statement made, without one witness coming out against me," he said. He added that he would rather die than become an informer and give the names of the real bombers.
James Francis Gavin - suspected bomb planter
Jimmy Gavin lived in Bordesley Green and is believed to be one of the bomb planters. According to Chris Mullin, Gaving was a pipe layer by profession and married to an English woman.
He served in the British army for three years and lived in Britain for many more. Gavin moved back to Ireland two months after the bombings - but it wasn't long before he was in trouble again. He was jailed for life in for the murder of another Republican in 1977.
Whilst in prison, he flatly denied involvement in the Birmingham pub bombings in an interview with Mullen, instead suggesting that the bombings were the work of British agents bent on discrediting the IRA. Gavin died in 2002.
Seamus McLoughlin - target selector
Seamus McLoughlin was the officer commanding the Birmingham IRA at the time of the Birmingham pub nombings. He is suspected of being the person responsible for selecting the targets.
Known as Belfast Jimmy, he took over as the head of Birmingham IRA in 1974. McLoughlin, whose real Christian name was James, was the cousin of bungling IRA bomber James McDade. In 2019, Witness O told the inquest jury McLoughlin has selected the targets for the bombs. Seamus McLoughlin died in 2014.
