The victims of one of Britain's worst terrorist atrocities will be remembered at a memorial service this weekend.
Relatives of the 21 victims who died when two bombs ripped through The Tavern in the Town and the Mulberry Bush pubs in Birmingham will join survivors to pay their respects at a 30th anniversary service on Sunday.
The attacks in 1974, which led to six Irish men being wrongfully imprisoned and later released after 16 years in jail, were widely blamed on the IRA.
The IRA has never formally admitted responsibility but there have been indications this week that they could now apologise for the atrocity.
The mourners, led by Birmingham's first Irish-born Lord Mayor, Cllr Mike Nangle, will hear the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, call for peace and reconciliation.
He will also tell the congregation at St Philip's Anglican Cathedral that the attacks could never be justified either at the time or today.
He will say in his sermon: "Lives were destroyed and changed that night in a most brutal fashion, which no cause could ever justify. The passing of time does not alter that."
He will add: "Yet it is also right for us to remember that the shock waves from those atrocious bombings went far wider, too.
"When we look closely, there are few who have not been touched by the events we remember. So many have their own story, their own emphasis, their own point of view which time will not dull nor the memory forget.
One of the survivors, Ms Maureen Mitchell, this week backed calls for an apology from the IRA. She was 21 when she was badly injured in the Mulberry Bush and was given the last rites.
Now 51, she has since worked on behalf of fellow victims for a memorial plaque and to promote reconciliation, even meeting members of the IRA.
PA