A triumph of the spirit - 20 years after the H7 Breakout

In Letterkenny last weekend, up to 1,000 republicans remembered the 1983 Great Escape from the H Blocks of Long Kesh.

On Friday night, the story of one of the most exceptional IRA operations ever carried out in the history of the struggle against British occupation was told by three men who were central to the escae from H Block 7 in Long Kesh on 25 September 1983.

Gerry Kelly, Brendan 'Bik' McFarlane and Bobby Storey gave their account of the escape in an entertaining and self-deprecating manner that only enhanced the story.

In telling the story of the breakout in that manner, they were allowing people to see the human side of an event that could not have happened were it not for the courage and comradeship of all those taking part.

While in H7, having taken the Block and imprisoned the guards, the operation was going to plan yet the block had to be held secure, after the lorry carrying the escapees left and until they actually got away.

That task was undertaken by men who were staying behind and who would suffer the consequences of the backlash from the screws.

These men took that risk knowingly and willingly.

On the way, the lorry had to go through a Phase Gate, which was guarded. Had the guard on duty stopped the lorry he would have had to be taken prisoner. One man volunteered to carry out that task and hold the gate, thus sacrificing his own chance of freedom to ensure the success of the operation.

When the prisoners reached the gate and had to take the 'Tally Lodge' and things began to go wrong, some prisoners stayed behind to afford their comrades the time to get away.

Then there was Harry Murray, who went back to disentangle a comrade who was ensnared on barbed wire fencing.

Harry was shot in the leg by a British soldier and recaptured. He went to the aid of his comrade knowing that he could have been shot dead.

Friday night was also about acknowledging the role played by people who did everything they could to ensure the success of the operation, even though the only benefit for them would be to see it succeed.

These were people such as Larry Marley from Ardoyne, who was subsequently shot dead by loyalists in 1987 and Finbarr McKenna, who died on active service, also in 1987, and Seany Bateson, who died of a heart attack in Long Kesh. All played a role in gathering intelligence and pulling the plan together in many ways.

The late Pat Beag McGeown, who was to become a Sinn Féin councillor and a significant player in the peace process, also played his part in ensuring the success of the escape.

In 1988, Volunteer Kevin McCracken, who played a role in securing H7 after the lorry carrying the escapees left the Block, was shot dead by the British Army close to the home of Volunteer Sean Savage, who had been killed in Gibraltar.

Three of those who escaped died later on active service. They were Volunteers Kieran Fleming, Padraig McKearney and Seamus McElwaine.

As part of the planning for the escape, the South Armagh Brigade was to provide military back up. Key to that part of the operation were Volunteers Brendan Burns and Brendan Moley, or The Two Brendans, as they are affectionately known.

Both men were tragically killed on active service in February 1987.

So, in so many ways Friday night was indeed a celebration. It was a celebration of the indomitable spirit of republican activists, who have shown great ingenuity and courage in their efforts to end the British occupation of our country.

In the jails, that spirit has been shown over the years with the no wash protests and the hunger strikes. And when the 1981 hunger strike ended, despite the tragedy of the loss felt by the deaths of the hunger strikers, the prisoners saw it as the end of one phase of prison struggle and the beginning of the next.

That next phase of struggle ensured the demoralisation of the prison service and the securing of segregation from loyalists.

That segregation then provided the platform from which the POWs could lull the screws into a false sense of security and it was from that platform that the escape plan was launched

The escape was one of the most humiliating defeats ever inflicted on the British war machine by republicans.

One woman on Friday summed up the sense of achievement the escape provided. She recalled the pain of the Hunger Strike, when she marched and protested in all kinds of weather, and the demoralisation when the men died. "The escape was a great morale booster and it showed that republicans weren't defeated," she said. "It was the people's victory and it showed people that republicans could still win great victories, despite the odds against us."

The Greatest Escape

In October 1981, at the end of the Hunger Strike, the British government announced the defeat of the republican prisoners in the H Blocks of Long Kesh. Less than two years later, 38 of those 'defeated' republicans smashed their way out of what had been claimed as the "most secure jail in Europe", inflicting a major political and military defeat on the British.

The 1983 escape was a major undertaking for the Irish Republican Army, both inside and outside the jail. The organisation outside the prison devoted time and resources to the breakout plan during a period of intense pressure by the British. Inside Long Kesh, the republican POWs 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.

It was Ardoyne tactician Larry Marley who established the bold and expansive objective of getting the maximum number of men possible out of the jail. He led a specialist team of five men selected by the camp leadership and entrusted with the business of organising escapes.

He masterminded the escape plan that would revolve around a weak link identified in prison security, the lorry used to deliver meals to the different blocks. Of particular interest was the fact that the lorry was never searched on its way round the camp.

The escape committee next turned their attention to seizing control of a H Block. They realised the key to such an ambitious plan was gaining control of the central crossbar of the 'H', which serves as an entrance hall and administrative area and is known, in a throwback to Victorian jails, as "the circle".

In order for their plan to succeed, the prisoners realised that they had to lull the staff into a false sense of security. The ending of the 'no-work' protest aided this plan, as it meant the prisoners were out of their cells for long periods, aiding the psychological battle against the screws, who now found themselves outnumbered. The prison authorities, eager to publicise the 'normalisation' of the prison, were happy to put prisoners to work as orderlies cleaning all over the block, including the circle.

The end result of this was a situation whereby some of the most renowned republican prisoners in Long Kesh became apparently eager to do prison work and made concerted efforts to become pally with screws. The prisoners in H7 carefully nurtured a relaxed atmosphere until it became the norm and the screws viewed security breaches by the prisoners as innocuous.

A number of the prisoners ordered to befriend the screws were not aware of the escape plan and swallowed this bitter pill on trust. Other prisoners, also unaware of the escape plan, were upset at what they witnessed, not surprising given the brutal history of previous years, and there was a constant rumbling of discontent below the surface.

The camp leadership appointed Bobby Storey as OC of the operation and Bik McFarlane as his adjutant. Both were already members of the escape committee.

Finally, Sunday 25 September was chosen as the appointed day, and the plan was put into effect. As the day approached, more prisoners were let in on the plan and those on the list to escape were informed. Other prisoners would play a vital role in taking the Block and guarding the screws but would not be escaping.

In the event, the Block was taken according to plan. One screw was shot and injured when he attempted to shut the door of the control room and raise the alarm.

The next stage of the plan also went well. The food lorry was successfully hijacked and the driver was forced at gunpoint to take his now human cargo out of the prison.

Where the escapers ran into problems was at the tally lodge at the prison's main entrance. The plan was to seize control of the lodge, hold the screws inside hostage while the lorry was driven through the 'airlock' at the main gate. Everyone was then to rendezvous with a heavily armed force of IRA Volunteers who were waiting a few miles from the jail.

But by this stage the escape was running 20 minutes late and the lorry's arrival coincided with a shift change for the screws. Those prisoners who took control of the tally lodge were soon knee-deep in screws, as they arrested more and more as they came on duty.

Eventually the prisoners' hand was forced when more screws coming on duty realised that something was wrong and two of them blocked the gateway with their cars.

Bik saw this as he opened the main hydraulic gate and he and Bobby quickly conferred, realising that the general alarm was about to be sounded. The prisoners had no option but to leave the lorry and rush the main gate in numbers.

Thirty-five prisoners managed to breach the prison perimeter successfully. In all, 19 of those on the escape were quickly recaptured, but the other 19 successfully managed to evade capture, by a variety of means and routes. One screw, who was stabbed in the struggle at the tally lodge, later died, but the coroner subsequently ruled he had succumbed not to his wounds but to a heart attack.

Back in the prison, when the screws retook H7, the rearguard were strip searched and were then made to run a vicious gauntlet of baton wielding screws and dogs, as they were moved to H8.