News that a British judicial body known as the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) is to examine a complaint by two Irish journalists that they were subject to surveillance by police and secret services deserves the widest possible publicity. Free article

I am often asked to tell my story of how we escaped from the H-Blocks in 1983, who was the key person, etc. Well in truth, there was no ‘key person’ and the escape was complex in that so many things had to fall into place. Free article

September and October 2023 mark the 40th and 50th anniversaries respectively of the H-Block escape of 1983 and the Mountjoy helicopter escape of 1973. As well as breaking tight security and securing the release of IRA prisoners, these escapes – and the popular acclaim that greeted them – struck blows against the propaganda which sought to criminalise Republicans and to isolate resistance to British oppression. The ingenuity of republican escapes in centuries of political struggle is unmatched. The breakout of James Stephens from the Richmond Bridewell in 1865, passing through six doors. Liam Averill’s departure from Long Kesh dressed as a woman in 1997. John Francis Green walked out of Long Kesh in 1973 disguised as a priest. The five republicans who escaped over the wall from the supposedly high security Whitemoor Prison in 1994. There are a litany of republican breakouts from prisons in Ireland and Britain. There are also the close-run things such as the 1997 discovery of 40 foot tunnel dug by prisoners in Long Kesh. From the An Phoblacht archives, we tell the story of these two escapes, as well as some other key IRA jailbreaks. We also carry a separate piece written by Dermot Finucane, one of the 1983 Long Kesh escapers. Free article

The campaign to save the Moore Street 1916 battlefield site has reached a crucial stage. At the time of writing, we await the decision of An Bórd Pleanála on whether to confirm permission for plans that would see much of historic Moore Street and the surrounding streetscape demolished to make way for a shopping precinct to be developed by British-based property company Hammerson. Free article

Thousands gathered in Cork on 27 August for the 42nd annual National Hunger Strike Commemoration. Sinn Féin Leas Uachtarán Michelle O’Neill delivered the main address at on the city’s Grand Parade. Free article