{"id":5900,"date":"2017-02-21T08:56:51","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T13:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=5900"},"modified":"2017-02-21T08:56:51","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T13:56:51","slug":"second-birmingham-pub-bombings-pre-inquest-story-marilyn-paula-nash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2017\/02\/21\/second-birmingham-pub-bombings-pre-inquest-story-marilyn-paula-nash\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Birmingham pub bombings pre-inquest &#8211; the story of Marilyn Paula Nash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The second <a href=\"http:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/birmingham-pub-bombings\" data-action=\"birmingham-pub-bombings\" data-content-type=\"section-topic\" data-track=\"false\" data-type=\"inline\" data-word-count=\"3\">Birmingham pub bombings<\/a> pre-inquest review takes place this week. Andy Richards reveals for the first time the tragic story of young victim Marilyn Paula Nash.<\/p>\n<p>An early riser for work, council worker John Smith needed to be on autopilot as he set off as usual on the grey, dismal Friday morning that is forever etched in his memory.\u00a0 Normally, he would have had a spring in his step. After all, all the weekend was beckoning. It was a chance for him to unwind from the office graft, and perhaps enjoy a drink or two.\u00a0 But this wasn\u2019t a normal morning. In fact, there had never been another morning quite like it in the West Midlands.\u00a0 The previous night, well, at that stage all the terrible details were not known. Accounts varied, the death toll was rising.\u00a0 Bombers \u2013 everyone knew they were the IRA, although the terror group had not claimed responsibility \u2013 had destroyed two pubs in Birmingham city centre.\u00a0 Nineteen people were dead, several were clinging to life, two of whom would eventually succumb to dreadful injuries.\u00a0 The number of injured seemed to change with almost every news bulletin, but it was steadily increasing, and by now it was more than 150.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"read-more-links\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/news\/midlands-news\/pub-bombings-major-boost-government-12511685\">Pub bombings: Major boost as Government changes law to allow funding<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p>On the previous night \u2013 November 21, 1974 \u2013 families across the UK had clustered around TV sets and radios, utterly aghast and trying to take in what the news flashes from Birmingham were showing and describing.\u00a0 In the city, and across the Black Country towns of West Bromwich, Dudley, Walsall and Wolverhampton, fear of more attacks, combined with growing anger, was visceral.\u00a0 There had already been a number of reprisal attacks on Irish homes and businesses. The region bristled with tension.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"in-article-image\" data-mod=\"image\" data-init=\"true\">\n<div class=\"outer\">\n<div class=\"spacer\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mod-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.birminghammail.co.uk\/incoming\/article8101683.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/Tavern-in-the-Town-after-the-Birmingham-pub-bombings-2.jpg\" alt=\"Firemen search through the wreckage after a bomb exploded in the Tavern in the Town pub in New Street.\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Firemen search through the wreckage after a bomb exploded in the Tavern in the Town pub in New Street.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>John\u2019s head was already full of this as he fastened his coat to leave his Walsall home. Little did he know that the sickening horror of the previous night was on his own doorstep.\u00a0 He stepped out&#8230; and into a nightmare scenario. John, now a 74-year-old pensioner and still living in the same terraced property, knows the memories can never be erased.\u00a0 \u201cIt must have been about 7am,\u201d he says. \u201cWe had all heard about the bombs going off in the pubs in Birmingham the night before. The whole area was in shock, people could hardly believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"read-more-links\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/news\/midlands-news\/pub-bombs-council-unites-confirm-12435171\">Pub bombs: Council unites to confirm posthumous Freedom of City for 21 victims<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p>In his early 30s at the time, on that Friday morning he was intent on catching his usual bus for the daily journey to work at Lichfield Council where he was involved in planning sewerage pipe developments.\u00a0 As he set off from the small close in Pelsall where his family lived, he was confronted by the extraordinary sight of his neighbour, Mr Nash stumbling about in the road \u201clike a lost man\u201d.\u00a0 John remembers his neighbour\u2019s tears and his face \u2013 the face of a man in absolute torment.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"in-article-image\" data-mod=\"image\" data-init=\"true\">\n<div class=\"outer\">\n<div class=\"spacer\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mod-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.birminghammail.co.uk\/incoming\/article8101681.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/Tavern-in-the-Town-after-the-Birmingham-pub-bombings-1.jpg\" alt=\"The wreckage inside the Tavern in the Town after the Birmingham pub bombings.\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">The wreckage inside the Tavern in the Town after the Birmingham pub bombings.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cHe was simply wandering about, not going anywhere but obviously really upset,\u201d recalls John. \u201cSo naturally I went to him and asked him what was wrong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said his daughter, Marilyn, had been in Birmingham the night before. She still hadn\u2019t come home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr Nash was a widower and lived with Marilyn, who was 22, and his son, Robert, in the terraced house next door. John thinks Robert was away studying at university at the time. Either way, there was no-one else at home.\u00a0 With nobody to talk to, Mr Nash\u2019s agony had multiplied with each long hour throughout the blackest of nights.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"read-more-links\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/news\/midlands-news\/dad-pub-bombs-victim-number-12408361\">My dad was &#8216;pub bombs victim number 10&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI tried to comfort him as best I could, but what can you do? What can you say?,\u201d says John. \u201cHis daughter should have been home hours ago. There had been no sign or word of her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI persuaded him to come back to our house where I left him with my mother before I went on to work. She did her best to help him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whatever conversation passed between John\u2019s mother and Mr Nash is not known. Neither is how long the poor man waited for news. But his fears for his daughter were sadly well-founded. She never did come home.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"in-article-image\" data-mod=\"image\" data-init=\"true\">\n<div class=\"outer\">\n<div class=\"spacer\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mod-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.birminghammail.co.uk\/incoming\/article8101694.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/Tavern-in-the-Town-after-the-Birmingham-pub-bombings-8.jpg\" alt=\"The wreckage inside the pubs after the Birmingham pub bombings.\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">The wreckage inside the pubs after the Birmingham pub bombings.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It took the authorities some time to confirm that Birmingham shop worker Marilyn Paula Nash \u2013 known as Paula to her family and close friends \u2013 was among the dead.\u00a0 She was an attractive, vivacious young woman, with a hint of Jackie Onassis about her looks and hairstyle.\u00a0 Those tasked with the dreadful job of identifying the dead could only confirm it was her by her wage packet, says John.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember that she was a very sweet, very friendly girl,\u201d he recalls. \u201cShe was my next door neighbour and a reasonably similar age so, although were were not close, we would always say hello, and pass the time of day. Sometimes we would catch the same bus if we were going into Birmingham for a drink, and we would chat.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"read-more-links\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/news\/midlands-news\/told-first-time-tragedy-modest-12403026\">Told for the first time: the tragedy of the modest hero murdered in the pub bombings<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p>A fateful decision by Marilyn to pop into a pub for a quick drink on the way home from work cost her her life. It was the penultimate pay day before Christmas. The pubs in Birmingham were full and business was brisk. Marilyn headed for the Tavern In The Town, the underground bar in New Street which had become a cult drinking hole for students and young workers. So did the bombers. They wrought carnage there, and at the nearby Mulberry Bush at the bottom of The Rotunda.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen it became known that Marilyn was among the dead, this whole area was in absolute shock,\u201d remembers John. \u201cThere was a big Irish community locally and a local Catholic club was nearby.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"in-article-image\" data-mod=\"image\" data-init=\"true\">\n<div class=\"outer\">\n<div class=\"spacer\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mod-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i4.birminghammail.co.uk\/incoming\/article8339904.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/JS21916950.jpg\" alt=\"Tavern in the Town, a basement pub on New Street hit by the Birmingham pub bombings of November 1974 and later renamed The Yard of Ale\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Tavern in the Town, a basement pub on New Street hit by the Birmingham pub bombings of November 1974 and later renamed The Yard of Ale<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI remember the police ordering the Catholic club to be closed for security reasons for a time. I don\u2019t think that was necessary, but I suppose they feared reprisals or trouble and had to be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr Nash, who later remarried, is understood to have passed away many years ago, and Marilyn\u2019s brother is believed to live in another part of the country.<\/p>\n<p>John is probably the only resident from those days still living in the small, tidy street that witnessed such awful events.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"read-more-links\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/news\/news-opinion\/home-secretary-must-resolve-pub-12346177\">Why the Home Secretary MUST resolve the pub bombs inquest funding debacle<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The homes there are well-kept but nowadays many have signs in their windows making it clear that callers without appointments are not welcome.\u00a0 It suggests the residents prefer keep themselves to themselves.\u00a0 Most probably have no idea of the tragedy that visited the Nash family 42 years ago.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"in-article-image\" data-mod=\"image\" data-init=\"true\">\n<div class=\"outer\">\n<div class=\"spacer\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mod-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.birminghammail.co.uk\/incoming\/article12230876.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/FILE-Coroners-Verdict-On-Resuming-Birmingham-Pub-Bombings-Inquest-Due-Today.jpg\" alt=\"Firemen survey the damage outside the Birmingham pub, 'Tavern in the Town', after an IRA bomb blast.\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Firemen survey the damage outside the Birmingham pub, &#8216;Tavern in the Town&#8217;, after an IRA bomb blast.<\/span> <span class=\"credit\"> (Photo: Wesley\/Keystone\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As for John, his chat with me has clearly stirred recollections that have lay dormant for many years.\u00a0 But he is not optimistic that the new inquest will bring truth or closure to those who still grieve.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLike a good many others I would like to know what really went on that night but&#8230;\u201d and here he pauses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt may turn something up, but those who did it have got away with it for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Ex-IRA chief: Pub attacks left me ashamed and appalled&#8230;<\/h3>\n<figure class=\"in-article-image\" data-mod=\"image\" data-init=\"true\">\n<div class=\"outer\">\n<div class=\"spacer\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mod-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i3.birminghammail.co.uk\/incoming\/article12620482.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/DQP_BEM_171115CONWAY25JPG.jpg\" alt=\"Kieran Conway\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Kieran Conway<\/span> <span class=\"credit\"> (Photo: Birmingham Mail)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The IRA\u2019s involvement in the bombings became clearer with the publication of the memoirs of Kieran Conway, head of the its intelligence-gathering department during the 1970s.\u00a0 In his book Southside Provisional, he confessed that the attacks on the pubs left him \u201cashamed and appalled.\u201d\u00a0 The attacks on the Birmingham pubs, neither of which had any military connection, \u201cwent against everything we claimed to stand for,\u201d he said.\u00a0 The bombings came after police disrupted the funeral arrangements for James McDade, a lieutenant in the Birmingham Brigade of the IRA who blew himself up while trying to attack Coventry Telephone Exchange a few days earlier.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"in-article-image\" data-mod=\"image\" data-init=\"true\">\n<div class=\"outer\">\n<div class=\"spacer\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mod-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.birminghammail.co.uk\/incoming\/article12620484.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/TRMRMMGLPICT000020504314.jpg\" alt=\"James McDade - IRA Lieutenant.\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">James McDade &#8211; IRA Lieutenant.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cTempers were high and I, for one, certainly at first feared that the local IRA had knowingly caused these dreadful casualties,\u201d said Conway.<\/p>\n<p>He claimed the IRA unit responsible \u201ccould not find a functioning telephone box, so they were unable to issue a warning sufficiently in time to clear the bars and prevent the mass loss of life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Conway finally left the Republican movement in 1993 and is now a criminal lawyer in Dublin.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"read-more-links\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/news\/midlands-news\/west-midlands-police-spend-more-12571349\">West Midlands Police spend more than \u00a3230k in research for Birmingham Pub Bombings inquest<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<h3>Fighting families\u2019 legal aid problems still to be resolved<\/h3>\n<p>Relatives of more than half the victims are hoping to be represented by lawyers at the pre-inquest review hearing on Thursday.\u00a0 But at the time of going to press, longstanding issues of legal aid had still to be resolved.\u00a0 For several months the Government had insisted that KRW Law, the Belfast-based law firm representing most of the families, was not eligible for legal aid.\u00a0 But at the end of last month, there was a U-turn and the Legal Aid Agency is currently considering a fresh application.<\/p>\n<p>Legal Aid Minister Sir Oliver Heald QC said: \u201cIt would be a travesty for families to be denied justice simply because of a technicality, which is why I have taken the decision to change the regulations around inquest funding. This will remove any barrier from the families\u2019 solicitors in applying for legal aid funding for the inquest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The inquest was re-opened in June last year following a campaign by the families, backed by the Birmingham Mail. The full inquest is expected to take place in September.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/news\/midlands-news\/told-first-time-tragic-story-12620490\" target=\"_blank\">www.birminghammail.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer; top: 6102px; left: 60px;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer; top: 460px; left: 60px;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer; top: 6102px; left: 60px;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer; top: 6102px; left: 60px;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c  no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">The second Birmingham pub bombings pre-inquest review takes place this week. Andy Richards reveals for the first time the tragic story of young victim Marilyn Paula Nash. An early riser for work, council worker John <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2017\/02\/21\/second-birmingham-pub-bombings-pre-inquest-story-marilyn-paula-nash\/\" title=\"Second Birmingham pub bombings pre-inquest &#8211; the story of Marilyn Paula Nash\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":5903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,1],"tags":[2873,2874],"class_list":{"0":"post-5900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-uk","9":"category-uncategorized","10":"tag-birmingham-pub-bombings","11":"tag-pre-inquest-hearing","12":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5900"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5911,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5900\/revisions\/5911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}