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Post by somersetstokie on Nov 21, 2024 17:03:05 GMT
I felt I had to mention that tonight is the 50th Anniversary of the terrible Birmingham pub Bombings in 1974. This was coincidentally also a Thursday night, just after 7pm. I will be holding my own personal 2 minutes silence at that time to respect and remember all those who died and were injured.
Most posters will be too young to remember this event but on that evening the IRA targeted innocent people out enjoying themselves and set bombs to go off in two popular City centre pubs, the Mulberry Bush at the foot of the Rotunda, and the Cellar pub, the Tavern in the Town.
No one I knew was involved directly, although a close friend had been working in her office in the Rotunda and had just left on her way to the Tavern in the Town. She missed both detonations by a couple of minutes, and was so traumatised she was mentally never the same again.
I was in Birmingham centre that night and was in another Cellar pub, The Nelson Bar in Temple St, when the bombs went off, and whenever the crime is mentioned I still to this day think "What if."
To Stokies it would have been like someone throwing a bomb into the Roman Candle, Hanley's own cellar bar.
Strangely something that struck me the next day was that more Stokies were talking about Peter Shilton signing for Stoke City than were talking about the bombs. As if urban bombings were something that happpened to somebody else.
Respect to all the victims of the bombings, fifty years on.
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Post by stokeson on Nov 21, 2024 17:26:31 GMT
The Wife was a student in Dudley at the time and when i visited at the weekend we went in the Tavern .She also somtimes went in with her mates on a thursday.No mobile phones at the time so it was waiting by a phone box till 8.15 (our regular call time) to find out if she was ok......
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Post by mrcoke on Nov 21, 2024 17:54:12 GMT
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Post by telfordstoke on Nov 21, 2024 20:33:56 GMT
Thanks for posting.. My wife's aunt's dad was killed in these bombings and whilst she was yet to be born,I've had a number of conversations with her aunt's brother at family events and who this has particularly burnt at him for clearly now 50 years, he's often visible as part of the relatives pressure group on tv appearances. My wife's uncle had to identify his remains as her aunt was pregnant at the time and the brother was on holiday and police said there was no way they'd allow Sandra to go through trauma that the identification process entailed. He won't ever discuss that with anyone as was clearly awful.
Not the most fascinating anecdote but it does hit home with my wife's family particularly.
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Post by somersetstokie on Nov 21, 2024 21:51:35 GMT
Well I've had my commemorative moment and life goes on. It's still hard to believe that the IRA's UK Mainland bombing campaign was a real and prevalent threat to everyone in the 70's, both in big cities such as B'ham and Manchester, and less predictable targets like Warrington. And here we are now, more then 25 years on since the Good Friday peace agreement, and it is supposedly in the past. But for me, even after an incident filled life, this event is as real and disturbing now as it was then. I hope we never live through such times again.
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Post by sticky on Nov 21, 2024 22:18:19 GMT
Thanks for posting.. My wife's aunt's dad was killed in these bombings and whilst she was yet to be born,I've had a number of conversations with her aunt's brother at family events and who this has particularly burnt at him for clearly now 50 years, he's often visible as part of the relatives pressure group on tv appearances. My wife's uncle had to identify his remains as her aunt was pregnant at the time and the brother was on holiday and police said there was no way they'd allow Sandra to go through trauma that the identification process entailed. He won't ever discuss that with anyone as was clearly awful. Not the most fascinating anecdote but it does hit home with my wife's family particularly. Jesus mate that’s horrific, far too young to know much about it but il have a read up thanks👍🏻 |
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