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

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

In the midst of a climate and biodiversity crisis, and at a time when there have been repeated amber alerts on our electricity grid, when energy prices have been brutally high and when rates of energy poverty have been at unprecedented rates, it is clear that transformational change is needed in the Irish energy system. Free article

I am sure that the question of where Unionism is at today has occupied the minds of many of the public, political commentators as well as the political establishments across these islands and beyond. Free article

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

International treaties must not come at the expense of farmers and our environment Free article