A compelling new documentary tonight will tell the story of the 1983 escape from the Maze with first-hand accounts from prisoners and, for the first time, a prison officer.
Breakout looks back at the September 25 escape, 25 years after 38 IRA men broke free from the prison.
It remains the biggest jail break in British history. Until then the Maze, which held dozens of convicted terrorists, was considered one of the m
ost secure prisons in Europe.
In the programme, republican former prisoners Bobby Storey, Brendan McFarlane and Gerry Kelly give first-hand accounts of their roles in the escape.
The documentary also includes an interview with a brave prison officer, speaking for the first time about the events, who was shot during the escape.
Campbell Courtney was a guard at the Maze at the time of the breakout, which was the culmination of months of planning by republicans and saw inmates taking over one of the prison’s H-blocks.
“I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest when I realised what was happening,” Mr Courtney said.
“There were people running about with guns, pointing them at you.”
He was working near the front gate when the escape was in progress.
The prisoners, having made their way out of the H-block on the prison’s food lorry, overran the gatehouse at the main entrance, where Mr Courtney was one of the officers.
“I didn’t feel threatened as such,” the former warder said. “I knew what they wanted to do – they wanted to get out and they weren’t there to do people harm unless they got in their way.”
It was intended that the lorry, which was full of prisoners, would make its way out of the front gate but the plan was thwarted by the guards and the republicans were forced to flee on foot.
“When the prisoners jumped out of the back of the food lorry and ran through the gates we began to chase them,” Mr Courtney said.
He had pursued an armed man. “I thought he was carrying a replica gun and I kept on running at him, but it turned out that it wasn’t a replica at all and he shot me in the leg,” said Mr Courtney, who was rushed to the Lagan Valley hospital in one of the prison vans.
“It was only when I got near the hospital that I began to feel the pain. Whether that was because of adrenaline or not I don’t know.”
He was transferred to the hospital’s military wing and underwent two operations.
Four months later, in January 1985, he was back it work in the Maze prison.
“It wasn’t my choice to start back to work so soon. I would have liked a few more weeks on the sick,” he joked.
“But I had no qualms about going back. I had no nightmares about it. I just came back to work and got on with it,” he said.
The full article contains 512 words and appears in News Letter newspaper.
