50 Years today
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/new...m-pub-30352756
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50 Years today
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/new...m-pub-30352756
My twin brother and his mates always started the night in The tavern in the Town .
For a twist of fate I think they started of in the Hole in the Wall .
I stopped in that night and when it flashed across the TV ,I thought the worse there was no mobile phones in those days .
He and his mates had walk home to West Brom , can still picture the releath from Mom and Dad when he walked in .
I was working in Brum the next day with my great mate an Irish man, who go attacked on the bus to work .
He hated the IRA more than anyof us he was ex Brittish army and a Protestant .
He couldn't work in the City for around a year and moved from B'ham to Dudley to live.
My mate is a survivor from the Tavern In The Town bombing. He was taken to hospital with a pint glass sticking out of his leg. He tried to help one victim and another guy shoved him to get out saying leave him he is dead. He was attending the memorial today.
Was only a young ****ager at the time but can still clearly remember the shock, fear and anger that spread across the city and the huge subsequent anti-Irish feeling (quite regardless of any individual's actual faith or political views). Like many, I had relatives who were in the area at the time but they were lucky and narrowly avoided being hurt in the explosions.
The arrest and sentencing of the "Birmingham 6" was a terrible miscarriage of justice and, to my knowledge, those really responsible were never caught? The IRA never publicly acknowledged that they were behind it, probably because the heinous attack in which so many innocent people were killed and injured only ramped up the government's desire to crush them and lost them the support of some who might have sympathized with their cause if not tactics.
My thoughts with all those who lost family or friends that evening.
No matter the "cause" - to maim and kill innocent people is never justified or defensible, RIP the victims of this abomination and thoughts are with anyone affected.