1983 escape IRIS
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THE GREATEST ESCAPE POWs had earlier done, he realised that these measures were only as strong as the individual screws staffing and enforcing them. He remarked too on the POWs’ success in getting key personnel involved in the preparation and execution of the escape appointed as orderlies within the block, in contravention of prison security policy on vetting of orderlies, and on the inability of individual screws or the H-Block’s Security Department to suspect an escape was being planned – despite the presence of potential clues to such an escape. The reality was, in part, that the POWs had accurately judged the self-interested complacency of most of the screws in H7 who were anxious to avoid confrontations with republican prisoners – a complacency that allowed the escape planners a margin for error or mishap in what was, overall, a highly secure operation. In one instance, shortly before the escape, Rab Kerr accidentally dropped a watch while playing snooker in the games room. Prisoners were not allowed watches, but a number had been smuggled in to H7 to coordinate the precise timings required during the block takeover. As Rab retrieved the watch, another POW, in order to divert the attention of a screw standing nearby, asked the screw: “Here, what’s the time?” “Why don’t you ask your mate?” was the screw’s sardonic reply, making no attempt to recover the watch he had clearly seen. On the evening before the escape itself, Gerry Kelly and Bik McFarlane were talking through the grilles that separated their respective wings. The film showing on the TV in the dining room in Kelly’s wing was Escape from Devil’s Island. “A good omen,” Kelly said to Bik. Just at that, a screw walked up to Bik who was watching the film through the grille, and joked: “Did you get any tips from that?” But Hennessy recognised that the POWs had not depended on this complacency to any significant degree. Acknowledging that the weapons and other materials must have been smuggled into the jail over several weeks preceding the escape, his report stated that B Wing of H7 had been searched on 25 August, 17 cells in H7 had been searched at random on 13 September, and that on the day of the escape itself, the dining and wash rooms in B and D Wings, the hobbies room in D Wing, and all the cells in C Wing had been searched. In addition, the POWs them42
selves were regularly searched. Nothing had been found on any of these occasions. In speculating on just how such a major escape had been executed almost as planned, Hennessy was thrown back, time and time again, to the human shortcomings, complacency and laziness of prison staff at all levels of the administration, and how they had been comprehensively outthought and manipulated by the POWs: “It is clear that there are men in the Northern Ireland Prison Service now who lack the abilities required of a prison officer and the leadership qualities necessary for the more senior grade appointments - as well as men who are over-concerned with high earnings.” He was particularly critical of the Security Department within the jail, describing it as “woefully inadequate” and saying that the security PC “lacked the necessary attributes for this important post”. Recommending his removal from the post, Hennessy also urged the replacement of the prison governor and the assistant governor with responsibility for security. Although the performance of the RUC and British Army in the post-escape security operation fell largely outside Hennessy’s remit, he was generally complimentary about the speed with which the RUC claimed to have established vehicle checkpoints once their escape contingency plan, Operation Vesper, was called. That was at 4.12pm, and the RUC claimed to have had their checkpoints in place thirteen minutes later. Yet, from the account given by the
IRIS
South Armagh IRA unit in position at the rendezvous point, it is clear that some senior members of the RUC thought that the Operation Vesper call was only a practice, and did nothing about it for at least 15 minutes. This lapse almost certainly assisted many of the escapers, and meant that the South Armagh unit was able to return to base unchallenged more than an hour after the alarm was raised. In the aftermath of the escape, many of the recommendations urged by Hennessy began, not surprisingly, to be implemented. One area of this involved physical reconstruction of areas of the jail identified by the report as representing fundamental weaknesses – areas such as the block control rooms, where in H7 John Adams had been on duty on the day of the escape, the tally lodge and main gate complex, and the visiting and goods reception areas. Dealing with the other main area of weakness, the human factor, was more problematic. In surveying the possible options for tightening security in the jail, including draconian measures such as internal body searches and closed visits, Hennessy had conceded reluctantly that there were other, including political, implications to this. It was clear that the prison regime did not relish a return to the confrontational atmosphere of the blanket and hunger-strike protests, nor would the NIO wish to see the resurgence of the external popular protests associated with these periods. Hennessy sought a balance, though one obviously weighted heavily in favour of a harshening of the prison regime. He also sought improvements in the vetting, training and accountability of the screws. The screws themselves, not merely in H7 but throughout the H-Blocks, had been humiliated and demoralised by the escape. The instinct of many of them, represented by the Prison Officers’Association, was for revenge and a draconian regime. Following the beatings inflicted on the captured escapers and the 88 prisoners who had remained behind in H7 (and who were immediately transferred to H8), as well as on POWs in many of the other blocks, there was a generally brutal regime imposed for several months. However, by the beginning of 1984, as the prisoners in the worst affected blocks regrouped, an atmosphere of normality had returned to most areas of the regime in the H-Blocks. The main punitive measures were reserved for the recaptured escapers and other