It was terrible, it really was. Each wing was self-contained and contained 25 cells. [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. By 1972, there were 924 internees and by the end of internment on 5 December 1975, 1,981 people had been detained; 1,874 (94.6%) of whom were Catholic/Irish nationalist and 107 (5.4%) Ulster Protestants/loyalists.[3]. Twenty prison officers were injured during the escape, thirteen were kicked and beaten, four stabbed, and two shot. Jul 8, 2019 - This Pin was discovered by Matthew Hillan. In the middle-class suburbs of south Dublin, the political atmosphere that is transforming the North finds an unlikely convert in law student Kieran Conway. [13] Prisoners had been planning the escape for several months. 59 Inside Northern Ireland's largest prison of Long Kesh, Rocky Burns described how he and his fellow loyalist prisoners would 'sing the Loyalist War songs of Ulster in . The official inquiry into the escape placed most of the blame onto prison staff, who in turn blamed the escape on political interference in the running of the prison. After several attempts the prisoners had opened the main gate, and were waiting for the prisoners still in the gatehouse to rejoin them in the lorry. Some was looking after the tea facilities and stuff like that, others was cleaning out the hut. The internees and their supporters agitated for improvements in their conditions and status; they saw themselves as political prisoners rather than common criminals. Hospital Plan and Elevations. HM Prison Maze (also known as Long Kesh) was a maximum security prison considered to be one of the most escape-proof prisons in Europe. 6. The Maze Prison escape (known to Irish republicans as the Great Escape) took place on 25 September 1983 in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Those convicted of "scheduled terrorist offences" after that date were housed in the eight new "H-Blocks" that had been constructed at Long Kesh, now officially named Her Majesty's Prison Maze (HMP Maze). Republicans have claimed that pensioner . search. [14] Officers arriving for work were entering the gatehouse from outside the prison, and each was ordered at gunpoint to join the other hostages. A man who planted a bomb on a bus during the Queen's visit to Ireland has gone on hunger strike in jail after clashing with the New IRA prison leadership. The prisoners also played a significant role in the Northern Ireland peace process. Give two reasons. [4], However, Special Category Status was short-lived. The H-Block from which thirty-eight PIRA prisoners escaped by taking prisoner officers hostage and hijacking a food lorry, on 25 September 1983. [14] At the main gate, a prison officer was shot in the leg while chasing the only two prisoners who had not yet reached the outer fence. [L] They drove it straight into the cage? The terminology of the circle comes from Victorian prison design. The existing research on the psychological impact of the Northern Ireland conflict for the prisoners shows that 70% of the ex-prisoners say that they experience poor or very poor emotional health. members. The current prison governor testified that there are no plans to discipline the prison officers involved and the "case is closed" as far as he is concerned. Poster depicting the 1983 escape. It was like a, and I defy anybody else to describe it as a prisoner of war camp, you know. [7], Nineteen IRA members escaped from Portlaoise Jail on 18 August 1974 after overpowering guards and using gelignite to blast through gates. The former terrorist was jailed for 10 years and was the first loyalist prisoner to arrive in Long Kesh RAF base near Lisburn. The collection contains interviews on the educational journeys of Loyalist and Republican ex-prisoners, Open University staff who tutored in the prisons or were involved in administration of study from the Belfast Office, prison education staff and Open University students who worked in the prisons. Internment, used several times in Northern Ireland's short history, was reintroduced by its Stormont government on 9 August 1971 (McGuffin 1973). Location: Ireland . Our republican guide exchanged pleasantries with our new guide and I managed to . Three prison staff are being treated in hospital after rioting prisoners set fire to the Long Kesh Maze prison near Belfast. The motor mechanics vocational training course , 1981 . He was taken to court and convicted then returned to the jail as a common prisoner and incarcerated in the H-Blocks as an ordinary prisoner, all within the space of several hours. [10][13] Leading unionist politician Ian Paisley called on Nicholas Scott, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, to resign. Initially, the internees were housed, with different paramilitary groups separated from each other, in Nissen huts at a disused RAF airfield that became the Long Kesh Detention Centre. In later years, adjacent yards were combined. Image courtesy Ulster Aviation Society. The highlight of your week would be getting the call for a visit Prisoner. This area contained the Staff Club, the Governors lounge and accommodation, staff lockers and staff car park. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. There was plenty of heartache and plenty of craic in that section of the jail Prisoner. They organised themselves . On 17 November 1971, nine prisoners, dubbed the "Crumlin Kangaroos", escaped from Crumlin Road Jail when rope ladders were thrown over the wall. Following the end of the policy of internment in December 1975, the cages/ compounds continued to be used for prisoners. The judge acquitted all sixteen as he could not correlate the stabbing to the heart attack. A place of incarceration and liberation, political debate and historical denial, the H Block cell units of Long Kesh/Maze prison in Northern Ireland housed members of both Republican and Loyalist military groups during The Troubles and are now considered icons of that conflict. Taken from an album from the Royal Ulster Constabulary archive collection. PRONI ref: D4629/1/12/7/3, The whole architecture of the H-blocks, it is not a normal type of architecture, this is an architecture that grew out of the whole horrific conflict situation. Prison Chaplain. The tunnel was fitted with electric lights, and was 80 feet (24m) from the outside wall, having already breached the block's perimeter wall. [35] In 2000 the British government withdrew extradition requests for Brennan, Artt and Kirby. It was situated at the former Royal Air Force station of Long Kesh, on the outskirts of Lisburn. [49][50] On 9 September 1994 six prisonersan armed robber, Danny McNamee and four IRA members including Paul Mageeescaped from HM Prison Whitemoor. VINTAGE IRISH ULSTER LEATHER PRISON BOOK ENDS LONG KESH MAZE LOYALIST SHIPS FLAG. [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. The British government refused to back down. So after a shower and stuff the compound would have come to life. The operations room telephoned the prison's Emergency Control Room (ECR), which replied that everything was all right and that an alarm had been accidentally triggered earlier. Loyalist Wing . Catholics are marching for civil rights and loyalist attacks have brought the British army onto the streets to quell the riots. Aircraft hangars built for the Royal Air Force (RAF) station at Long Kesh, 1941-1946. The Maze Prison escape (known to Irish republicans as the Great Escape) took place on 25 September 1983 in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. And the Brits surrounded the compound and they fired in CS gas all round. We invite you to submit interesting articles, tell us Not only were republicans and loyalists held in separate compounds/ cages, but so were the various organisations, including the UVF, UDA, Official IRA and Provisional IRA. In Northern Ireland's Long Kesh prison in the late 1980s and 1990s, prisoners from each of the loyalist and republican groups painted highly politicized murals on the walls in their respective wings. RM M9J13H - A stock picture of watch towers on the remnants of the former H Block Maze prison at Long Kesh near Lisburn Northern Ireland. More than 130 prisoners were injured in the trouble - nine needed hospital treatment. Due to prison overcrowding, from December 1972 Long Kesh was also used for sentenced prisoners. All naked to the waist, just wearing the prison, the trousers from the prison uniform. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. [37] Brennan, who had married a US citizen, was deported from the United States to the Republic of Ireland in August 2009. The other prisoners escaped over the fence, and by 4:18 pm the main gate was closed and the prison secured, after 35 prisoners had breached the prison perimeter. All naked to the waist, just wearing the prison, the trousers from the prison uniform. Her Majesty's Prison Maze (previously Long Kesh Detention Centre and known colloquially as the Maze Prison, The Maze, the H Blocks or Long Kesh) was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from mid-1971 to mid-2000.. Existing prisoners remained in separate compounds and retained their Special Category Status with the last prisoner to hold this status being released in 1986. [32][33], Kevin Barry Artt, Pl 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. Reproduced with the permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. [8] Thirty-three prisoners attempted to escape from Long Kesh on 6 November 1974 after digging a tunnel. The site is situated outside of Lisburn, off the M1 motorway, on the brownfield Maze/Long Kesh, former prison and air base for the RAF. Portlaoise Prison Portlaoise County Laois H Blocks Long Kesh Lisburn County Antrim BT27 5RP . In January 2009, plans to build the new multi-purpose stadium on the site of the prison were cancelled, with the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, Gregory Campbell, citing a lack of support and concerns for a net loss to the economy. WILLIAM 'PLUM' SMITH'S BOOK, Inside Man: Loyalists of Long Kesh - The Untold Story, gives a personal account of his imprisonment as a young man from the Shankill Road. The incidences of cancer among republican prisoners involved in the revolt in Long Kesh have led many to believe that these illnesses and subsequent deaths can be linked to the British Army's use of CR gas . Originally, each wing had its own yard, with an air lock between adjacent yards. [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. 7. McConnell: "HM Maze Prison, also known as Long Kesh and the H-Blocks, held some of the most dangerous men in Europe during its 30 year operation. A place of incarceration and liberation, political debate and historical denial, the H Block cell units of Long Kesh/Maze prison in Northern Ireland housed members of both Republican and Loyalist military groups during 'The Troubles' and are now Also known as the canteen. In fact, despite the opening of the H-Blocks in 1976, they remained in use until 1988, with people who had been sentenced before 1976 finishing their sentence in the cages/ compounds and anyone sentenced after March 1976 going into the H-Blocks. The slogan was coined in the 1970s during the Troubles in Northern Ireland and variously credited to Bobby Sands or . It was later to be used for housing sentenced republican and loyalist prisoners from 1972 who were initially granted 'Special . Semi-cylindrical hut built using corrugated metal, which could be partitioned into cubicles. (A Red Hand Commando Volunteer returns to the Maze Prison and takes his 14 year old son with him). And the noise was just absolutely incredible Prisoner. [9], The prisoners requested that showers be installed in their cells; and when this request was turned down, they refused to use the wash-hand basins. Bobby Sands, the leader of the Provisional IRA prisoners, began a second action on 1 March 1981. The compounds/ cages were segregated along political lines. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. In the two years following the agreement, 428 prisoners were released. He has nothing to lose. The Government's infrastructure organisation, the Strategic Investment Board (SIB), was tasked with taking forward the proposed stadium idea and appointed one of its senior advisers, Tony Whitehead, to manage the project. HM Prison Maze. The Burning of Long Kesh Concentration Camp. Located in front of the main entrance to an H-Block, it was accessible to vehicles. play_arrow playlist_add rate it ! Free shipping for many products! PRONI ref: INF/7/A/8/12. Running time: 25:19, CCEA GCSE History: Unit 1; Section B; Option 2: Changing Relations: Northern Ireland and its Neighbours, 19651998. And basically you were simply left to your own devices. [6] The prisoners responded by smashing the furniture in their cells, forcing the prison authorities to remove the remaining furniture from the cells, leaving only blankets and mattresses. This group was formed in 1974 with the goal of establishing a socialist republic in Ireland, free from British rule in the northeastern six counties. Free association was permitted within each compound/ cage from 8am until lock-up at 9pm. There was ordinary prisoners serving the food out and there was a Newry man took exception to one of them because this prisoner was from Newry. These cookies do not store any personal information. You had the watch towers, the barbed wire, you had Nissen huts as the accommodation. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. THE BURNING of Long Kesh and the events of 15/16 October 1974 is one of the most significant events in the history of the conflict and . 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". In July 1972, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, William Whitelaw introduced Special Category Status for those sentenced for crimes relating to the civil violence. Three of the 10 hunger strikers who died in Long Kesh prison in 1981 belonged to the INLA. [14] Storey told the driver, "This man [Gerry Kelly] is doing 30 years and he will shoot you without hesitation if he has to. After spending several years in prison, he became a Protestant fundamentalist preacher. [13][17] Four more escapees were captured over the next two days, including Hugh Corey and Patrick McIntyre who were captured following a two-hour siege at an isolated farmhouse. 1974: Maze prison goes up in flames.

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