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I am blurry My bad, but let's get into what we came for I don't even know if y'all interested in this But somebody suggested this before my channel got, you know, all that stuff was happening to it and it got lost man This is IRA 1983 break out of the maze prison Then about this so Should be interesting. I'm gonna put these warnings up and we're gonna get straight to it, man Or a straight to it as possible Oh It's an hour long 1983 in 1983 38 iran maids broke out of the maze prison ten miles from Belfast It was the most audacious escape since cold it's This is the story told by three of the leaders of the escape and for the first time a prison officer The maze was reputedly Europe's most secure jail a Prison within a prison within an army camp. It's hard to explain the quite and intimidating nature That was the Hitch blocks Santeries and sensors and alarms and cameras and even the fact that that the jail is situated More or less and say the British army military camp each wing is secure Each leg of the hitch in the block as a secure unit The blocks are secure you then that is also in a fees which is also in said they present camp Which is also when said a British army camp If you want to get out of that there you have a series of things to do from point A to point B They said a prison inside a prison inside an army camp. That's that's and it's all designed You need the juggernaut to get up out of there or the hawk or something as a hyper secure unit There was this aura Development of you know, this was an impregnable fortress the only way you get out of you know jail and in fact Of course the British government of Maggie thought you were posting about it was in a wooden box It was virtually impossible for any individual criminal to escape But his designers hadn't accounted for a prison population who considered themselves an army people in one spot with a common goal and the knoweth know it all and the Brainpower to get it done And the tactical enthusiasm The amount of prisoners are between Huge sentences. It was phenomenal. So there were loads of life sentence prisoners 20 to 30 year sentence prisoners So in a sense people had a focus on attempting to get it one of the duties of political prisoners the escape It's like shooting for the stars. It's like something that you've always really want you know and what I want to do Was to not be released You know great to be released, but I wanted to break the system Just can't willy-nilly get up and start cutting the holes and fences Other ways the security apparatus is on top of your morning in a net the chem staff to set it That something needs to be done to coordinate this the camp escape officer who was appointed was Larry Marley Immediately he I sat about establishing an escape department He wanted to create a collective ethos within the jail about an approach to a skips So they sat about organizing an escape officer in every block They sat about setting up an intelligence officer. He was to bring in intelligence Okay, so so they sound to me like they were setting up provisions to make sure things didn't happen They was getting snitches ready. They was they was they was you know, I'm saying doing what they supposed to do as a jail It's a very large camp. I'm in the screws would move you from one part of the jail to the other they would move you and blocked out vaunt they had a policy of Providing you with the most limited few of the jail Lorry sat about a plan to first of all demystify the jail It was first of all getting the structure where each block was and releasing to each other block Any aerial photographs that would have existed of the jail in the blueprints in the media would have been smuggled in now from outside There would have been ordnance survey maps smuggled in from outside with the view to developing an outside view of the jail The Intelligence gather and process the most obvious aspect of it was prisoners moving about the jail We then made ourselves available for work with the view to infiltrate in the system So prisoners with them working in the prison hospital Prison administration areas the kitchen going out on visits coming back from visits. There was prisoners going out on parole Coming back from parole Lorry then had working with him a think tank a weak core group who would Go through the information coming in from a several perspective. He was also very innovative and he used to encourage me Genius This wasn't no just spur of the moment thing. This was planned out set set down and planned for months and years I would say about long I think we could do this and do it. He said listen, we need to thank big Let's thank big never made four or five people. Why not 20 25 34? Why not 40? Why not 50? Thank big always thank big Just 18 months earlier this most closed of worlds have become very public indeed as the IRA made it a battleground with staff and the British government Question of political status for someone who is serving a sentence for crime I am this prime time. It is not political. It is crime during the hunger strike was I would say was probably the most tense time and the present I mean I for one Didn't think there's a person who would die on hunger strike. I thought we're not on hunger strike It come in agreement with the government, but I couldn't not so let me see the government letting somebody down and it came to the shop when the first one day and then I threw a Blanket over the mayor's prison the atmosphere and you could cut it with a knife Screws didn't like us because the IRA and the outside had killed acts in my the prison staff and on a more face-to-face level We didn't make screws because by and large we had been the victims of their brutality There was huge anger I would I would argue here Some of the stuff that was done during the protest I mean people still talk about with great emotion The escape plan began with a radical move The initial focus was not the prison or its structure The first walls to scale were in the prison officer's minds The first battle was a mental battle Part of the change in tactics was to have a better if that can be the term certainly a more work in relationship with the prison stuff We that's what I tell you man. That's how a lot of watch a lot of these documentaries and no matter how Close you get to one of these one an inmate You don't know what they set me up for so always be ready They started the battle in the brain in the head Down and we planned the approach to the screws with regards to trying to create a friendly environment part of that was talking the screws by their first names arguing with them over calling us by our second names and made of the said story visit You say money had John the names Bobby what he shouldn't have got for and trying to create this sort of a softness and Taking the tension out of the the climate. It was crucial for the psychology Think about it. Everything's a mental war first anyway When you at work, it's a mental war That's where it starts, you know Sam when you trying to be successful. It's a mental war like everything is mental first Then everything knocks it down by then everything sits behind that that's crazy that they even thought of that. That's tactical That existed in the block to be brought to the level of not This paper security attitude the dead had Literally, we On occasions getting Republican comrades to go out into the same environment the screws and act in a way as if you were accepting the status quo for instance, Big Mac Farland who would be They also had a hunger strike hard all of a sudden he could be Cleaning the bins This is a Republican prisoner Naked in a cell. He's taking on Maggie Thatcher and then all of a sudden I have a brush and yards And their attitude actually strange enough was and some of was they thought that broke us Others you know were a bit suspicious, but there was ones that are he actually thought we've got these guys now The screws come down the wing You're actually stood up nowhere crossword Or it'll imponder and I'm about the football It also then when you're sitting down you're making them tea and you're having toast the conversations won't move on to other things Through conversation that way you end up acquiring Information as well just through a process which is a must-be must-be headmarking up to get out there now I know what I do blah blah blah Must take us an eternity getting off to the reverse 200 is gonna do the one time No, we sure we staggered and this is what you do And sure I can go out into what I do a slip off early and that people That's me way 15 minutes early because see it's such in such a time That's when you get the big so somebody's only out there telling you That's where the mental battle one Y'all got so comfortable y'all telling a little little details that ain't none of a business And they taking notes at the worst time in the world could do that get there is a quarter to four They were that eager to see Republicans cleaning their floors and making their tea They dropped a lot of their caution and in the case of hit seven Which was crucial to the work that we would eventually do there The screws wanted us to go into the circle area Which was the nerve center of each of the heat blocks and the clean and the polish of the area It then became a settlement for me to be standing in the grills of the nerve center of the block Which is a security control room, which is supposed to have the wooden door closed So mentally Okay with the guards where they got into the control center is the steel grill bolted and padlocked It then became norm for that door to be open They needed it open for fresh air because there was no ventilation But it then became norm that they un-padlocked and just left the bar over became normal for me to bestow on my arms They had 12 on this screw getting them a cup of tea opening the grill bringing them in tea and toast closing over again Walking away slowly, but surely it became the norm The prisoner how long did this mental battle go on? Because if it's slowly over time became the norm this had to be going like these are long-time prisoners, right? They said so they this had to be going on for a year or two until it became normal Manipulated the star That's the way The worked over probably a number of months They weren't doing anything to Benefit me earlier the staff they were doing they were playing their own their own tune Through the strategy of interacting with prison staff Republicans gleaned a vital piece of intelligence The transport coming in and out of the prison was always a focal point for Transport getting you from point A to point B It began the emerge that one of the biggest Avenues that we can use was a prison for glory That traveled in and out of the camp traveled in and out of every plug and quite frankly I lost kind of the number of times per day that dad Laurie was traveling around the camp. It was just non-stop we also found out that it wasn't searched at any of the kids and That it was very much its own authority as it drove about the jail They also learned through intelligence gathering that it went outside the camp for screws who were doing what was popularly called hummers And that would be like moving furniture or just moon using the lorry for whatever reason They wanted to use it on a personal basis But what it meant for us was that the screws who were dealing were the front gate or the Brits on the front gate Would be used to seeing it going in and out and that was a crucial piece of mental Yeah, that's why they be having a strict schedule for anything moving in and out or around prisons and not See now when you just lollygagging and moving around at any time now, no structure and And the and the prisoners know this Strategic advantage when they own this type of time when they try to escape Allegiance for us because that assisted our plan in theory Wars could be climbed over or tunneled under But what of the prisoners could simply drive out the front gate? People get lazy. They don't want to do the checks. They Get used to the faces, which is why the the driver of the lorry became so crucial We then considered whether or not we had infiltrated the system of the jail enough to actually Plan the takeover of a whole hits block a Block house four self-contained prisons in the legs of the age called wings These were controlled by what was known as the circle within the bar of the age If you were to take over a block you had to take it from the circle out Because to take it in the wings How would you get into the circle if it was any noise and all that so you had to take it from the nerve center The H blocks were designed for individual control They were not designed to deal with Republican prisoners of war who would organize and Control and Exploit the conditions that they would find themselves in anybody looking at a H block Would see it as a nightmare scenario from the reverse Who would say whoever gets control of the circle and in the event that there's a hundred and twenty a hundred and not thirty Republican business here controls the block We sat down in the block to look at all the different aspects And then we were the in charge locally in the block with the responsibility Of putting the diagrams together indicate the alarm points how they would do point a how they would take point b Well, how many people was required? It was meticulous some of the stuff was totally and absolutely meticulous because we needed to be able to sell The escape to the area. I'd say we had to be hyper hyper cautious because it had to be written There is no other way there's no other way of selling an argument other than putting it in paper and haunted to somebody So it was all done in miniature I It's a major operation that you're talking about doing and it's no different from an IRA operation Outside that it's a need to know basis and if you don't need to know you don't know even if you're going to be playing a part And it at a later stage like you used to have a thing leash lips sink ships during the war Literally, there was some people you didn't know about this year right up to the last minute Man shout out to the first responders man. I mean, it's a long documentary man So shout out to honestly everybody in here watching it in the premiere with the first responders are the ones that click that like button with no Without even second-guessing it so shout out to y'all right now for pushing the video and the underpinning security aspect of it was that if we found out that they had breathed the word Anybody by hint or innuendo or anything Do what we go? I mean the risk factor and this was huge I Would have recognized early on that if there was no firearms available for the escape then the escape wasn't gonna happen We worked out that the screws Would have had the weight of numbers over and above us out in the administration area and that we would actually need a pistols firearms for a greater effect and greater influence over the screws You had to be able to take whoever you were taken and have them Basically surrender immediately because you couldn't afford Any fisty cuffs or anything like that the only way to do that was that they knew that they had no choice The army leadership on the outside recognized the escape plan is one that could work And they cleared the operation and agreed to resource it with the IRAs agreement What had until now been a paper exercise became reality Guns were smuggled inside 25 years on the IRA was still not say how Now once they agreed that was sort of came on that just lifted us From about 27% to about 60 or 70. You know, I just give you that Difference that whole different attitude to this is filmed in 2008 He said 25 years on 1983-1993 2003 I was still a child. I don't remember Jerry's enemy This is good stuff. This is looking really really good So we knew we could take over a block We knew we could secure the block without the alarm going out We knew that the prison lorry would come at a particular time. We knew we could hijack the lorry We knew we could hide in the back. We knew that the prison lorry would not be searched and through the jail to do the tally lunch Too much that mental without that mental war Just doesn't none of this happened The reason we chose to Sunday was Sunday is a closed day. There's no visits There's no movement inside the prison other than food lorries up and down or somebody going to hospital There's no workshops. There's no football. There's no there's nothing Sunday is just you observe Sunday like a religious day almost even in said prison Therefore they do not also need the same amount of staff as they would on a normal working day You're up on that day. There's there's a sense of So we have apprehension about the day and there's a sort of sense of something's Something's all here. I suppose in a personal sense of is going, you know, this is it I had had a number of attempted escapes. A number of them had failed Um, I knew that this was Both complicated and dangerous I knew that whatever happened if I was caught at the far end of it That it was going to increase them at the time. I was in jail fairly substantially. So it was a big decision The first job of work to be done that that day was to pick McFarlane who was the orderly His job was to take the names of all the screws in the block because we needed 12 uniforms And we needed to identify Knowing the prisoners who they were for the screws that we would take them from For says and fit and stuff like that They didn't want prisoners wearing oversized uniforms. They wanted it to fit exactly so everything looked One of the things that I had to identify was the controller Because it's it's crucial and it was always the same five or six people Who alternated that duty in the control center and out of the five or six There's only one of them that we felt Would create any difficulty in a bad situation and he's the one that was on That day it was john adams was on The control room and I was chatting him early start the day early away. No, I've tugged on a full duty today and oh my Jesus After months of winning the war does over with fake friendliness and tea and toast It was time to reveal their true intentions 38 men a dozen with key duties would launch an escape planned with military precision I went out Down the wing out into the circle overalls on pistol down the the belt Jerry Kelly Followed him out a couple of minutes later from another wing. He also had a firearm Tony McAllister followed him out and Brandon made followed him out All of those prisoners were armed with a pistol Those were all prisoners who were orderlies in the general circle area Or had reason to go in and out of it and screws were used to seeing them there At the point that big decided the operation was ready to commence He was to shout the word bumper and then bobby story that was his Way of getting out. He was going to bring the bumper out And the bumper is a floor polluter and then that was us on the move The bumper command signaled a 90 second countdown In that time bobby story and his team would have to silently capture four prison officers All gathered in one room We talked about and practiced bringing a level of Immigration to each of the the moves In order to deter anybody from resistance and to offset the likelihood of our having to use the firearms You use verbal aggression to put it across You know, you make sure they know this is an IRA operation. You make sure that they know you will act if you have to But you won't act if you don't have to And when I closed the door, there was four prison officers in the room We produced our firearms We had practiced going through the drama of Farry dramatically producing the guns and pointing them at their heads And then we had the whisper which we were concerned made on their main the effectiveness Of the threat that we were trying to achieve Yeah, yeah whispering threats is like was like putting Putting Salt on pork. Well, you know, but nobody even feels it. Um, but we produced the guns and we said Get down on the ground I then um or honestly when somebody's quiet with You might believe me a little more honestly because the loudest person in the room is normally the weakest If you're going in with that mindset Been whispered threats is crazy You're like, hold on fam. You whispering at the hide. Let me get down Cocked the weapon that I had to let them know because they're familiar with weapons That the weapon was real and that it was rallied afar. They then moved off their seats and got on the floor Story would then move to a pivotal position within the circle Everything had to be done by lane of sight When I went out the door, Jerry Kelly could see me. Big McFarlane could see him The two lads who were talking across the circle could see me And when they went down the wings the arrestor screw the lads and the wings could see them It was like a the pebble in the water It was like a ripple effect of pebble in the water and the circles went out in opposite direction But at exactly the same time and we were trying to get that effect So it was just that bang bang bang bang All sagging doctor sagging as soon as I see you taking him. I take this guy here Key to the success of the plan was taking over the control room Which oversaw the block and communicated with the outside world Control room which oversaw the block and communicated with the outside world The problem with the control room Was that where he sat you heard an intercom. There was a panic button Uh, there was a radio and there was a telephone Right, so he had all of those Which which were within his his reach. So it was crucial that he Make a move and he was actually the person we were most worried about he was the person we did not want them The control room and the problem was there was a gap between me and him So don't have a move and get on the ground This is now an operation if you move I shoot if you do what I tell you won't be hard This is a vulnerability phones here You ask him what the problem is you then take 30 seconds and whatever the problem is you go back to him And say look that's been sorted And he says well, what if it don't believe me and I says John you make them believe you You're left the pants on it But there was one room in the block there was a blind spot to the men who hoped to escape from the maze that day We thought we had it settled when somebody came out of The ladies toilets this was happening. John Adams obviously seen his moment And he reached out and closed the opaque door As the other prison officer was being overpowered John Adams tried to raise the alarm Kelly fired two shots one of which hit Adams above the eye He was unconscious for I'd say about 30 seconds and He woke up and I had quite an extraordinary conversation with him around I said something like what did you do that for? And he said I don't know. I don't know. Um I'm sorry. I just I just don't know why he says can you get up and I said something you can't I just know you're bleeding. You're bleeding heavily. I will get you Some help but don't move from where you are However, there was two shots found and the worry is that this is heard Then at the front gate. I'm thinking about the thing Could go entirely out of hand The gunshots were not heard The prisoners had secured eight seven by the skin of their teeth But this hitch lost them valuable time Time that would cost them dear Me later All screws were arrested when they were brought out of their points of wherever they were and brought out of their classroom and all tied Hans tied behind their backs and tied to each other so that they couldn't go anywhere And pillow kisses were put over their heads to stop them at that to find anybody We took the uniforms off the ones that had been identified And our laws were getting dressed in uniforms There was a statement read out in each of the canteens Uh, it's an IRA statement That this was an IRA operation the IRA taken over the plaque. We're not here Um for revans. We're not here to punish us over what has happened over the hunger strike or the protest Um, but you need to know that if you interfere with the escape you will be dealt with swiftly and immediately At that particular point the block has been taken over. We control it. Um, we're controlling communications in and out of the block Everybody there was ratted for the next phase of the operation, which was the arrival of the foodlory Hey, this is intense When I seen the length of this I was oh god an hour and then I seen that it was in in 1k not even this mug in 520p I was like, I don't know but These are great storytellers at the end. We needed the lorry driver to drive us out of the block There was a prison officer drove it. None of us could drive it out We needed to be identified come through the gates and stuff like that And we needed to come up with a a plan that would ensure that he would do it This guy was crucial to escape. Davy McLaughlin was the key pin So when he got out of the um the lorry jerry cali and I went up to him produced firearms very um aggressively um pointed him them at him told him that the um block was under republican control That he was under arrest that if he didn't do what he was told that he would be shot This is all here at 87 Okay, we made the medical room up like three pin boards were maps on it We had rounds of ammunition sitting on the uh the table and a couple of firearms Just in order that he seen that he was in an environment that we We were absolutely confident then that we would be clinical about and that we controlled The driver assured us that he we had his full compliance And we then started showing him The maps and he actually started showing us small inaccuracies on the maps And the reason for that was because he said i'm just showing you this in case where you're saying you turn left there It's actually maybe 40 yards further down But in case you think i'm driving on and doing something wrong. I don't want you to overreact on me We then loaded up the lorry with the skippies and there was to be 30 prisoners in all Jerry Callie was the only prisoner that did not get into the back of the lorry His job was to lie across the well of the lorry below the legs of the driver that i would have have gone uh to his stomach That uh, if he went off if he did anything wrong If he did anything against what i said, then he would be shot What we were thinking about there like how they're gonna have somebody inside like they have to have somebody like In there so they can make sure and the stadium was that no matter what we're going to escape but in one of the Plans which is the preferred plan you live Last two years was me and Bobby Callie was already on the front I'll be closed up the tailboard and pulled down the the shutter at the back And everybody was sitting were told total and absolute silence So we uh drove off out of the block Swung left and then left again up along the road towards the exit route There were just three gates between them and freedom, but their greatest hurdle lay ahead Taking the tally lodge the control room for the main gate I knew the route uh even though i was lying down i thought if you could see out and i knew exactly the route uh down uh and went down to the tally lodge and knew the gates we had to go through You could hear the guy down at the gate and shouting up to the driver all right devy has gone He had to get the hydro like opened and we drove straight through We've been through the second gate which is the administration gate and then we drove down to the tally lodge area The tally lodge was where the prison officers clocked in and out The plan was to take it over restrain the guards and open the gate The truck would then take the 38 escapees to scarver 20 miles away Where they would be met by the south arm our ira and taken across the border Everyone said you had the the security hotter tally lodge There was a brick post up in the corner sitting above you and what i wanted to do was to park the lorry so that We could block as much of what was happening on the tally lodge sort of the brick My joy there was just to sit there and watch david mclaughlin and i was trying to keep him calm But in a certain way he was trying to keep me calm So uh i was engaged him in conversation i said hey you're down he says i'm all right and he says uh i says uh you're married he says you're not and uh I says any kids he says i have a couple of kids i says uh i'm what's the yarn he says not fucking enough I was always quite quite sharp in the circumstances Weaving into the out corridor into the offices arrest of the screws put them on the ground That point bit came in and Left one of his team at the back door to arrest any screws who would follow In their footsteps and at that point we had control of the tally lodge When we get into the back door Of the tally noise there's a boy standing behind the door with a pistol and he said to get in there and I didn't know I didn't know what to make of it and the last thing I thought of was the probes Never thought you'd get behind the hour I seen a prisoner who was ragging the house and said to Keith Keith keep quiet this is a probes and then My heart started and I thought I was gonna bust down in my chest A phone call came through to the tally lodge and I went right quiet Keith Keith was I didn't know I didn't know what to make of it and the last thing I thought of was The probes Never thought you'd get behind the hour I seen a prisoner who was ragging the house and said to Keith Keith Keith keep quiet this is a probes and then My heart started and I thought I was gonna bust down in my chest A phone call came through to the tally lodge and I went right quiet silence shh total silence nobody say a word Keith Keith And we brought the senior officer we brought him over to the phone And two of us one and he said him both armed pistols at us that is said told him to answer the phone And if he said a wrong word He wouldn't be able to say another word because it would be the wrong word would be the last word that he said Hello And the phone call was from the emergency control room to say That an alarm had been triggered in the tally lodge And we could hear this you see And uh you must know no no no And we're sort of pushing him like you know And he says they want what an army talking about the emergency control room said The alarm that his husband off is an alarm that's on to the tv Which when we looked over at the tv there was a number of um present officers present staff Land under the tv and obviously one of them and said had the alarm And they all began moving away from the tv as a result of our taking a focus on it And your mom sent him in the phone red come on stop calling about now. No more messing around Your mom said i are in a red he said well reset the alarm and then this was this guy's opportunity to send the signal and he asked The guy on the other end of the phone in the emergency control room he asked him How do you reset the alarm? Everybody knows we know how to reset alarms from your prisoners, you know Everybody knows and see the minute he said it the two of us just Pushed the pistols under the set in his head And we were listening very very intently and the guy on the other end of the phone says i push it back in your stupid B and put that phone down He definitely tried y'all Hey, he tried y'all but y'all they were so relaxed in there. He ain't even peaking And this guy drained just Physically turned White you know the same color as his shirt because he tried to sound a signal That something was wrong and the other guy didn't pick it up We had actually hit this place probably about 20 minutes later 15 20 minutes later Then we should have Which coincided with the change of duty on and off at that period That was causing us problems because screws were coming off duty screws were coming on duty It was fairly quickly that we had in the region of 2000 present staff Arrested in the tally lodge area on their gunpoint and the numbers were mounted Our lords were standing in what we would always describe now as legacy of screws. They were just Surrounded by screws and onto their legs everywhere I could see these boys and to me Although they weren't in control of the tally lodge. They weren't in Overall control of it of the whole situation And it was white with 70 and I said to him that I think we could tick them I said I think we could tick these boys here And I don't know why he were hurt what I said or why he Just seen me speaking to someone I but I was told no uncertain time to keep my mouth shut He says to me, um Are you are you a hero? You're a fucking dead hero? And they pointed a gun on me The prisoner all that hopeful talk went away, didn't it? Hey listen When that pipe to your dome you're gonna It's a scary sight right there No matter what the situation is had exploited the jail's weakest link the prison officers But the staff's anger and humiliation Unleashed an unexpected strength It's unexpected. I will never know what happened. Just all ponderland broke loose. I don't know who he's through the first blow I don't know What happened just I was ponderland Um, I ran out and shouted at the back. I said go everybody go So I went down to open the gate got to get the whole way back Run back in towards bobby. See what I did that they drove two cars in and blocked the exit of the lorry So the lorry wasn't going anywhere. So bobby insisted to me Open it let the lads out. I remember then I looked him right and there was something out of the back of the Lorry and I thought There wouldn't be gonna stop jumping That's tough That's tough. Y'all would they I know they weren't expecting that There's a fight in this little open area And there was a a brit and a box a sentry box on top of the hydraulic gate to the right of it literally literally 10 yards away and he saw I mean he saw the fight he saw A half a dozen of his batter lumps out of each other down at this gate, but everybody's in uniforms He didn't see any guns. He didn't see any weapons The escape descended into a fight between prisoners and staff Five officers were stabbed I seem to be firstly and also they just in the tower they just thought it was like Guards that got into a scuffle or something like or they couldn't separate them. So they didn't want to take a chance Jimmy's words were to me. He says a couple of officers have stalled my And I just were and I think it was his left arm he left it and it was just below his armpit But I said to me you're gonna be okay because there's not much blood and there wasn't really a lot not a lot of blood It transpired in later years when there was a court case about the whole escape The disparate cave evidence says he thought it was a melee between prisoners and staff who were fighting each other 35 of us at that point How do you think that it's sunday the prison is like The staff is not in those type of numbers you see two dozen real prison guards and you see 45 Prisoners that's a lot of people. I don't know how much staff this Ron Ron for the fence and three of us turned to hold the screws back with our pistols whilst everybody climbed over the fence So we're Going after these boys over the field and one of them turned around pointed a gun at me and I thought He's a replica and I kept running on him and that's where he shot me Shot me in the leg on Well that either down or with me out of it down No job can pay me enough money to run towards towards A blick I'm independent the only time I'm you see me run towards a witness to protect like a family member that is it that is all It was every man for himself McFarland Kelly and story quickly assembled three separate teams We get up into this house and hijacked two cars in the phone And headed off in different directions She must make a man was with me and he says look there's no point in staying on major roads Because there'll be helicopters up. There'll be roadblocks. I'll have different things on major roads He says you need to get off and get rid of this After us just hijacking it you need to get rid of this he says and and he was the only one in that car of the People in the car. He was the only one From the countryside everybody else was out of town or city and it no sort of field craft as such But he knew you know countryside's different. You need to lose all Sense of visibility that anybody has of you, you know become part of the countryside. So we'll get rid of the machinery We spotted this house and Drove up this roadway I dropped everybody off give them whoever was getting the house give one or lots of pistol I just get in take over the house and the beauty about this house was You're looking at the at the doorway on the way in and to the right was uh The door we have like a built-in garage So they all tend some purposes from from aerial view or pillars driving past and look in to see the car that blows the house And the work disappeared from the face of the earth He crossed a couple of fields crossed the road And we were coming to a river that was actually the lagoon We then Head along a hedge and got into the water and head along head onto the bank There was a couple of cows and a field business and they started running off one of them was startled We thought people were coming in the dead. It was um r.u.c military police And prison staff they were shouting about prisoners. Haven't been seen One of the r.u.c. men he pointed over to where we were and said Um, look at look at the way the water ripples on the bank there And you think that's odd and stuff like that and then he finally handed over his rifle To to another r r.u.c. man got down and uh, if you like a press up position For a look on to the lip and he was able to see clearly our heads Behind the reeds. We were just clear to be seen They took us out of the river this was all on their gunpoint and then they stripped his naked Um And marched us up to a jeep and then they brought us back around to the jail They dragged us out by the feet from the van dragged us in Um kicked us in to the punishment cells Jerry Kelly and his team made it to a nationalist housing estate in Lurgan Where they made contact with a former h-block comrade My memory of it isn't much of the day it was on He was sitting there watching it and I shared it as you know the nickname I shared his nickname and I I mean literally left it about Sort of whatever sex ends is off the sofa and I says it's jerry Kelly. He's it I says we've just escaped from the hits blocks. He says what what and he sort of started ragnates man And they were sort of trying to get the information. He says man, how many it's has been on in use and he says we've just escaped He says I said well, we're seeing coming in here. I says we stopped at the shop I says you need to get the osse. I says and we need to be out of this district in five months Mass escape from the maze a prison officer killed more than 20 republicans on the run I'm also in the following day when people come down the bus at my I told me to me that I find it hard to believe and because I seen the blood on the shirt on To me it was only a spot about a bit. It says it palm here on there was no no great deal of blood, but There you go 38 prisoners escaped 10 of them were recaptured by tonight, but the remainder are still at Any way you look at it the escape from the h-block has driven an astonishing Bettering round through one of the most carefully constructed high security prisons in the world It is very a very great incident indeed the most serious in our prison history Uh, the safety state where jim pry has set up an inquiry immediately And I think we must await the result of that inquiry. Uh in the meantime Um, everything is being done to try to find the escape prisoners and return them to prison I wonder if they got everybody I'm trying to jump to the So 20 people was on the run by the end the rest They three men into the cell It was over the next five to ten minutes that the sudden that the that the feeling was coming over me That it must have been. I don't know euphoria relief or whatever That we had actually done it That we had busted the jail busted at white home so-called famous h-blocks most secure prison in western europe blah blah a Thatcher's dream horror horror sort of breakers yard that I was full of Adrenaline euphoria relief Feeling absolutely successful In everything that we had tried to do that day and I'm gonna honestly say that my personal circumstances Did not harm me Through to me in any way that I can remember You've taken over a house With a husband and wife and three kids two lads at about 11 and 12 And a baby in about nine months. We just said like if we can secure a promise from them Not to go to the appealers for 24 hours Well, we'll take it at that. I'll give us a head start So they're saying how are you gonna do that? So I said well, I'm gonna talk to the to the woman So I actually said here. Look, I'm left with Two choices here. One is we're gonna leave here as quickly as possible as soon as possible and be out of your lives. I says And the only way that I can guarantee that you don't lift that phone Is that I take the eldest one of your kids so far down the line with us in policing and the woman was just horrified by this prospect It's just you wouldn't do it wouldn't do it. I says well the second choice is that you As a christian would give me your word That you will not contact The authorities So they give a promise and she says that you can tell her boss That uh, just to prove it to him. He's a man of his word We're people of our word and we're prepared to get the good book out and swear on the good book that we'll keep her word So he got all the family to put their hands in the bagel and swear that they wouldn't Devote them a hand for the period that they had agreed to Question mark 72 hours. She agreed to 72 hours The OC who I knew had been in jail with had arrived. He says Eigenpodge isn't an old dump an arms dump. He says it has been used for years. It's on the floorboards of a house And uh, we said well if the dump has never been found and they've been read and looking for whatever Nobody because you're doing it. It sounded the best option But when we would get down the surprise was you know, we were expecting a dump to be able to sit up on or something You already able to sit on was actually on the two rooms With a connection and you couldn't actually turn if you were lying down You could only lie down and you couldn't actually turn without hitting your shoulder On the uh, the rafters. So it was fairly It was fairly tight So we said to the Like my whole thing were like After you escape prison or escape any type of lack of You're being hunted. You're being searched for relentlessly. Like what is the plan after? Like y'all planned it so well To get out now what now y'all under some floorboards Shoulder to shoulder Seeing a string of light like what is the um Couple over there We'll just we'll just stay there unless As chilling would say I had to do number two as you couldn't you couldn't afford but uh, I mean if you're in you're in it Or whatever we've got coffee jars and all sorts of stuff down to set it. That's the best way to do it We spoke and whispered how anytime we had to speak anyway We got a radio down with an earpiece to try and hear the news So we were here and straight away what was happening this because we obviously had lane news and all of that And of course If you aren't up getting you know shard every day and what have you Then after a while because we were there for two weeks After a while you start to smell and you know, we may have been used to smell but we knew clearly that There was a body origin all of that I represented of the northern command Uh came to see us and sort of discussed how we're doing all of that and um I was dizzy when I went up. I I'm a doctor talk to him and it was actually it was I was actually dizzy my balance was gone when I went up, so it was that type of uh It was that type of uh atmosphere We decided that we would go to south aramal Because we knew contact people down there that we could get in contact with We also decided that we would go only at night and travel through fields For the first few hours as opposed to using any country lanes or roads once we get past midnight We use railway tracks the whole way down towards neary So I just remember we're going Dozen on the Monday morning about seven o'clock. We're taking a small radio as well with us And listening to the news on at seven o'clock in the morning very very faint and Just this feeling of birds chirping around you You're sitting in the middle of a field whereas the day before you're in Europe's most secure prison camp It's actually an unreal type of Feeling you know, it's just it's a wonder I'm here. I'm out. You know, is this real? It's like I feel like this is for personal glorification Like because there was no real plan after they got out because you're still in even if you break out of prison You're still in prison You can't move you can't do nothing Honestly being on the run is worse than being in prison almost right not not okay. Maybe not but like You can't do anything. This is amazing. That's quiet. It's peaceful. You can you can hear the wind blowing through the trees Come about eight o'clock at night. We had it off again the same thing again overfields fast as now people were getting tired and Because you'd walk all night from a bit set off about eight or half yet at net and you'd walk You know as continuously as possible right through to about Four or five o'clock the next morning. So we did that for three or four days McFarlane decided to take a risk Knowing they were in a nationalist area They threw themselves on the mercy of the family in whose barn they were hiding Just took a chance and got them to go to a local republican in the area that they knew Too big cars come out to pick us up Once they put us into the cars that was us driven straight into South Harman and into see if bullets right down literally Two to three hundred yards off the border There was this feeling of like, you know, you close the chapter That when they arrived to pick us up There was a confidence about them. They were in their territory. They were inside Harman The minute that I get into the car with these people I relaxed totally and absolutely and I just felt That is it This phase of the escape is done. We are die in safe hands After months living undercover in rural island Kelly and McFarlane flew to the continent in january 1984 using false passports Here they resumed their IRA activities with new identities And geo the outside world is uh, so they were successful You gotta think about the odds. Okay. We're gonna bring 45 people with us to You know do this to get out Some of y'all like i'm making But some is Good luck We're in a street sense of word fantastic because your memory of it is exaggerate What it came home to me was it was actually I had walked on one day and had to stop at the the lights and press the button When I was walking across the street, it just hit me. You know, just just one of those things I just I just remember it very well You know flipped me. I'm out. You know, I'm free And it was just it was as mundane as that wasn't an extraordinary that happened Life over there is different because you do have a false identity. You become somebody else You're a face that nobody knows so you are able to go and walk The city streets of amsterdam or anywhere any of the major cities in europe bar, of course, england you're able to go and Live anonymously Being on the run I mean, it can be a very lonely place You're in paris paris is whatever 10 million people in it. You do not Have friendships, you know, so you're you're like in the middle of a sea of people but without relationship You could have decided that you were going to make a life And decided to pull away from a struggle and and decided to go and get a job and do all of that But that was not my decision my decision was to Remain with struggle I had made some decisions which were impacting on very many lives. That's just me You can have a normal Life with the exception is you're always watching over your shoulder for the wee odd glitz that makes And that's not that's not life It happened or something isn't right and you obviously have a set of procedures, you know security procedures that you adhere to Religiously every day a car accident was enough to put us back in jail. You have to realize that's that's the atmosphere you're in so Um once they start doing any check you're gone Kelly and McFarlane remained britain's most wanted The escape had been a propaganda coup for the ira and a personal affront to margaret thatcher When the dutch Security people came on top of us. It's it's it's hard to say as to hi They came about it We called it wrong Because the next morning, uh, they were under the apartment. They had got onto the apartment somewhere but and the heels of the hunter was five o'clock in the morning when the The windows come in the stun grenades the flesh grenades and the armed Uh security people in the dutch police were just in on top of you three windows and everything they come in basically like An sas squad and the next thing in this guy had a machine pistol In the mouth And he was shouting i mean and what what came through to my consciousness because i thought it was Gone i actually thought it was a bomb to say it was the first thing and then i realized it was okay and then these guys were gone and uh If shetland dutch And that's what that's what came through to me And it was actually when i heard him shetland dutch. It was actually a relief it's a frightening experience and uh The the the thing i'm thinking of is uh, you know if that was uh The pillars or the brits or something coming on top of you'd be dead before you know it The extradition process ran around to the end of it and i think it was the fourth or the fifth of december 19 86 the flu is back in and then Brought back up into the hitch blocks and it hits them And it brought me onto the same wing that i had a skip from and they actually had the eso of the block That we arrested on the day of the skip standing in the circle when i walked in He was the guy who was in charge of the block that day we skipped To welcome me back in and to send me down to the wing that it was going to They thought that the thing to do it was like something that one of these One of these detective shows you know bring them back to where it started so it'll never do it again Plan was that if he did not return Within 10 minutes to tell us that there was a problem. Then we knew the escape was on At the same time a speck went into the circle. I'll say to the story like religiously they told it all of them Republican prisoners in each of the four wings Began preparing to arrest the screws who were in their particular wing The next part of the operation then was that big mcfarlane would go into the circle area Walk over to a grill here and actually shout down to these wings Has anybody got the bumper the bumper was it the junior minister mr. Jerry Kelly I beg to be that the second stage of the public authorities reform bill be agreed Concordia the bill contains provisions relating to certain public bodies, which are the responsibility of a number of departments Captured inside two days the remaining 19 all crossed the border into the republic of island Few were subsequently about during okay Four escaped to the united states. Oh, wow Out of sight out of mind one has never been seen or heard from again man, see hello Even like comment subscribe turn on your post notice man. Shout out to the first responders. I'm gone