On this day, 38 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoners escaped from H-Block 7 of the Maze Prison in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The Maze was a maximum security prison that held prisoners suspected of taking part in armed paramilitary campaigns during the Troubles, with separate wings for loyalists and for republicans. In addition to 4.6 m fences, each H-Block was encompassed by a 5.5 m concrete wall topped with barbed wire, and all gates on the complex were made of solid steel and electronically operated. The prisoners seized control of H-Block 7 with pistols that had previously been smuggled into the prison and then hid in a food supply lorry. When the alarm was raised and the main exit blocked, the prisoners were forced to abandon the lorry and run to freedom. The escape was a propaganda coup and morale boost for the IRA, with Irish republicans dubbing it the “Great Escape”.
