Having been sentenced to six years imprisonment,[1] Maguire was with the other IRA prisoners in 'A' Wing, when it was noticed that there was an unused trapdoor in the roof of a toilet block.
[1] It was decided that Patrick Donnelly, Hugh McAteer (whose suggestion it had been),[3] Jimmy Steele, and Maguire would escape through this, with the aid of rope ladders fashioned from torn bed sheets and across the prison roof, followed by a second wave led by Joe Cahill.
[5] Apart from Steele slightly injuring himself, the escape was successful, and Maguire and the others made their way to a North Queen Street safe-house in the staunchly Republican New Lodge district of Belfast.
Splitting up, he and Donnelly made their way four days later to Dublin;[6] Maguire did not remain there long, however, as Belfast Brigade had received word of a major tunnelling operation by the Republican prisoners in Derry prison.
In order to provide logistical support for such an important escape- which was timed for 21 May[7]- he made his way to Derry.