Dublin solicitor to be questioned over Birmingham bombings

A Dublin solicitor will be questioned by gardaí about the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings following revelations in his 2014 book, Southside Provisional.

Kieran Conway, who runs a criminal law and human rights practice in Dublin, will speak to gardaí of the Special Detective Unit next week following a request from Birmingham police.

In his book, he wrote that former IRA chief of staff Dáithí Ó Conaill, named in the book as Dave O’Connell, talked to him about the bombings in the immediate aftermath.

He wrote that he was “told by Dave that the early indications were that the casualties were the result of yet another failure in the warning system, a succession of phone boxes from which the warning might have been relayed having proved to be inoperable”.

The Provisional IRA never officially admitted responsibility for the attacks, which killed 21 people and injured 182 others.

Six Irish men were sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the bombings in 1975, though their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory and quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1991.

West Midlands Police have prepared questions for the solicitor, who will be interviewed by gardaí under a mutual assistance programme between Irish and UK police forces.