Maze Prison escape
It held prisoners suspected of taking part in armed paramilitary campaigns during the Troubles, with separate wings for loyalists and for republicans.
Two prisoners were recaptured, but the remaining seven managed to cross the border into the Republic of Ireland and appeared at a press conference in Dublin.
[2] On 17 January 1972, seven internees escaped from the prison ship HMS Maidstone by swimming to freedom, resulting in their being dubbed the "Magnificent Seven".
[5][6][7] Nineteen IRA members escaped from Portlaoise Jail on 18 August 1974 after overpowering guards and using gelignite to blast through gates.
[10][11] On 10 June 1981, eight IRA members on remand, including Angelo Fusco, Paul Magee and Joe Doherty, escaped from Crumlin Road Jail.
In addition to 15-foot (4.6 m) fences, each H-Block was encompassed by an 18-foot (5.5 m) concrete wall topped with barbed wire, and all gates on the complex were made of solid steel and electronically operated.
Bobby Storey and Gerry Kelly had started working as orderlies in H7, which allowed them to identify weaknesses in the security systems, and six handguns had been smuggled into the prison.
[14] A rearguard was left behind to watch over hostages and keep the alarm from being raised until they believed the escapees were clear of the prison, when they returned to their cells.
[14] At 3:25 pm, a lorry delivering food supplies arrived at the entrance to H7, whereupon Brendan McFarlane and other prisoners took the occupants hostage at gunpoint and moved them inside H7.
Ten prisoners dressed in guards' uniforms and armed with guns and chisels dismounted from the lorry and entered the gatehouse, where they took the officers hostage.
Officer James Ferris ran from the gatehouse towards the pedestrian gate attempting to raise the alarm, pursued by Dermot Finucane.
This incident was seen by a soldier on duty in a watch tower, who reported to the British Army operations room that he had seen prison officers fighting.
[14] At 4:12 pm the alarm was raised when an officer in the gatehouse pushed the prisoner holding him hostage out of the room and telephoned the ECR, too late to prevent the escape.
[10][13] Leading unionist politician Ian Paisley called on Nicholas Scott, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, to resign.
The British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, made a statement in Ottawa during a visit to Canada, saying "It is the gravest [breakout] in our present history, and there must be a very deep inquiry".
[10] Fifteen escapees were captured on the day, including four who were discovered by the RUC hiding underwater in the river Lagan using reeds to breathe.
[21][22] Escapee Kieran Fleming drowned in the Bannagh River near Kesh in December 1984, while attempting to escape from an ambush by the Special Air Service (SAS) in which fellow IRA member Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde was killed.
[23] Gerard McDonnell was captured in Glasgow in June 1985 along with four other IRA members, including Brighton bomber Patrick Magee, and convicted of conspiring to cause sixteen explosions across England.
[24] Séamus McElwaine was killed by the SAS in Roslea in April 1986 and Gerry Kelly and Brendan McFarlane were returned to prison in December 1986 after being extradited from the Netherlands, where they had been arrested in January 1986, leaving twelve escapees still on the run.
[27] In November 1987 Paul Kane and one of the masterminds of the escape, Dermot Finucane—brother of assassinated solicitor Pat Finucane—were arrested in Granard, County Longford on extradition warrants issued by the British authorities.
[32][33] Kevin Barry Artt, Pól Brennan, James J. Smyth and Terrence Kirby, collectively known as the "H-Block 4", were arrested in the United States between 1992 and 1994 and fought lengthy legal battles against extradition.
The republican prisoners who escaped but were captured and returned were forced to run a gauntlet of guard dogs which were allowed to bite them.
During the course of his extradition proceedings, he applied to the Minister of Justice in Ireland not to send him back because he feared being assaulted by the prison staff and members of the security forces.
As soon as Kane was handed over to the security forces at the Northern Ireland border, verbal abuse, including anti-Catholic remarks, began.
[49][50] On 9 September 1994 six prisoners—an armed robber, Danny McNamee and four IRA members including Paul Magee—escaped from HM Prison Whitemoor.
[53] On 10 December 1997 IRA prisoner Liam Averill, serving a life sentence after being convicted of the murder of two Protestants, escaped from the Maze dressed as a woman.
[55] The prison break was dramatised in the 2017 film Maze, written and directed by Stephen Burke, and starring Tom Vaughan-Lawlor and Barry Ward.
[56] The prison break was also the subject of a 2021 episode of History's Greatest Escapes with Morgan Freeman which featured interviews with escapees.
