JAILBREAK: Great Irish Republican Escapes 1865-1983 is the first complete history of audacious republican jailbreaks, both north and south of the border.
Jailbreak recounts every major escape, from Fenian leader James Stephens’ rescue from Richmond Prison in 1865, to the sensational 1983 IRA H-Block breakout. Featuring first-hand accounts of the plotting and execution of astonishing escapes that left an indelible mark on our history, this is a thrilling, accessible and hugely engaging book of prison breaks and ingenious escapes.
“What has taken place here today was a carefully planned exercise to secure the release of a substantial number of POWs. The block is now under our control.” – Handwritten note from IRA leadership intended for prison staff taken hostage during the H-Block breakout, 1983.
The IRA’s spectacular 1983 breakout from the Maze Prison was the biggest jailbreak in UK penal history. It was the culmination of a long and valiant tradition of escape bids by Irish republican prisoners, who saw it as their moral duty to escape, attempting to do so in increasingly daring and audacious ways.
Spanning the period 1865–1983, Jailbreak features escapes on land, air and sea, including bomb blasts, tunnel escapes, mass breakouts and helicopter airlifts. James Durney has put together a fascinating chronicle, with each chapter featuring a remarkable jailbreak, such as Éamon de Valera’s cunning rescue from Lincoln Jail in 1919, the ‘Greatest Escape’ of 112 anti-Treaty prisoners from Newbridge Barracks in 1922 and the movie- like helicopter airlift of IRA leaders from Mountjoy Prison in 1973.
In this hugely entertaining book, James Durney deftly records twenty-three action-packed factual accounts of daring rescues, incredible escape bids and jailbreaks that raised the morale of nationalist Ireland and defied the might of empires and governments.
“We crawled out in single file. All was quiet. When outside we turned to the right, along the river bank for perhaps a hundred yards, in order to avoid going too close to where we knew there was an outpost on our left, and then struck straight across the river...On the other side of the river was a steep bank. We climbed it and into a large field. Then we were free. Never have I experienced such delight which that sense of freedom gave me when going up that field.” – Anti-Treaty prisoner Séamus O’Connor on escaping from Newbridge Barracks in 1922
Published by Merrion Press, Jailbreak is priced at £17.99.
