1983 escape IRIS
24/07/2008
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Introduction
THE GREATEST ESCAPE
T
HE 1983 ESCAPE from the H-Blocks was a major undertaking by the IRA. It involved the allocation of time and resources by those on the outside at a period of intense pressure from the British. Inside Long Kesh, the IRA prisoners spent countless hours in preparation – the painstaking collection and collation of intelligence, the meticulous planning of each stage of the operation, the continuous briefing of people on their roles and the acquiring and safekeeping of weapons vital to success.
The escape was not the work of the ‘few masterminds’ beloved of the media. From the germ of the idea, through the planning, to the final realisation, the success of the escape was the result of the disciplined and coordinated efforts of many people. In October 1981, at the end of the hunger strikes, the British Government announced the defeat of the republican prisoners in the H-Blocks. Less than two years later, 38 of those “defeated” republicans smashed their way out of the “most secure jail in Europe”, inflicting on the British a major military and political defeat. Nationalists throughout Ireland rejoiced at Britain’s humiliation. It was those same nationalist people who, with no thought for their own safety, aided the escapers in the days after the escape and sheltered them in the following
• Vol BRENDAN MOLEY
2
IRIS
25 September 1983
“One cannot fail to admire the competence of an organisation which enables the prisoners of war to bring to fruition an escape plan which, apart from last-minute calamities, was largely successful.”
• Vol BRENDAN BURNS
— Lord Colville
months and years. For them, no praise is high enough – to them, this magazine is dedicated. I ndil chuimime ar Óglaigh Brendan Burns, Kieran Fleming, Kevin McCracken, Séamus McElwaine, Pádraig McKearney, Larry Marley agus Brendan Moley a bhí bainte leis an éalu agus a thair has sna hlianta 5 shin.
• Vol PADRAIG McKEARNEY
• Vol LARRY MARLEY
• Vol KIERAN FLEMING
• Vol KEVIN McCRACKEN
• Vol SÉAMUS McELWAINE