1983 escape IRIS
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THE GREATEST ESCAPE oned in Portlaoise. Shortly before his release date, knowing that an extradition warrant would be served, Clarke was one of twelve men, including Robert Russell, who made an unsuccessful escape attempt on 24 November 1985. He received an additional three years for that attempt. Then, three weeks before his next release date, Clarke was taken to the District Court and served with British extradition warrants relating to his original charges in the Six Counties and the H7 escape. Held without bail throughout the following two years, his extradition upheld by the District Court and High Court, Jim Clarke finally won his battle in a landmark judgement in the 26 County Supreme Court, along with Dermot Finucane. Clarke was set free on 13 March 1990, returning to a rapturous reception in his native Donegal. Recalling the escape trek in 1983, Jim pays special tribute to Séamus McElwaine – “shrewd for the country, checking out the fields before we crossed them” – who had been able to distinguish potentially friendly nationalist farmhouses from hostile loyalist ones by the type of farming employed. It was McElwaine who selected the farmhouse in South Armagh which the escapers eventually approached, and from where the contact with the South Armagh Brigade was made. After crossing the border, Clarke was together with Gerry McDonnell for a while before moving to Donegal where he stayed with Kieran Fleming, to whom he became close. He recalls how, a short time before his death, Kieran was shot and wounded in an engagement with British troops, and lost his weapon in the withdrawal. “He was really cut up about losing the weapon and swore he wouldn’t let it happen again, so he made himself a lanyard for it so that it would be attached to his arm during an operation. I’ve often wondered if it was still with him when his body was recovered.” Jim Clarke is now married, with a young son who is named after his friend and comrade, Kieran Fleming.
the screw’s car, Jimmy Donnelly from Ardoyne in North Belfast was serving a 15year sentence following his arrest in November 1981 and his conviction on the perjured evidence of Christopher Black. When the car crashed into the external gate, Donnelly was trapped in the back of the car and was recaptured immediately. However, when the charges against those held solely on the evidence of Black were overturned at the appeal court in Belfast, Donnelly got bail – in October 1986 – on the outstanding escape charges. He jumped bail, remaining at liberty until his re-arrest in Ardoyne in March 1989. He was sentenced to five years for the escape, but with time served on remand was released in November 1990.
JOE COREY Recaptured with Paddy McIntyre two days after the escape, after reaching what they hoped was a safe house in Castlewellan, Joe Corey from County Derry was finally released in 1992 after serving 14 years of a life sentence.
DENNIS CUMMINGS Caught in the tally lodge melee as he attempted to buy time for his escaping comrades, Dennis Cummings from County Tyrone was released on licence in 1994/’95 Denis was another of those Volunteers whose courage at the tally lodge provided maximum opportunity for the other prisoners to make good their escape. His brother Christy, also a former POW, was shot and seriously wounded when LVF gunmen attacked doormen at the Glengannon Hotel in County Tyrone, in revenge for the INLA killing of Billy Wright.
SÉAMUS CLARKE Séamus Clarke from North Belfast was arrested in 1975 and received a life sentence. After the escape he remained on the run until 1987. On 26 November of that year, he was arrested in a house in Dublin and subsequently sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment in Portlaoise Jail. He was released in March 1993 and since that time has been living in Dublin. 46
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JIMMY DONNELLY One of the six POWs to attempt to escape in
DERMOT FINUCANE Arrested along with Bobby Storey on the day of hunger striker Mickey Devine’s death in August 1981, after a high-speed car chase through West Belfast minutes after a shooting attack on British soldiers, Dermot Finucane from Lenadoon in Belfast received an 18year sentence for possession. (A charge of attempting to kill the British soldiers failed when the fragmented bullets recovered after the attack could not be forensically matched with the weapons found in Finucane’s car). In November 1987, Dermot Finucane was arrested by 26 County forces at Granard, County Longford, along with Paul Kane, during a search of over 50,000 houses looking for Dessie O’Hare’s INLA gang and in the aftermath of the capture of the Eksund arms shipment. During the next two and a half years, Finucane was held in Portlaoise without bail, awaiting extradition. This was not relaxed even when, two days before his High