James Durney

Delve into unflinching and urgent first-hand accounts of political prisoners defying oppressive prison conditions and fighting for Ireland’s freedom in this thrilling testament to republican resistance.

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, this collection features escapes on land, air and sea, including bomb blasts, tunnel escapes, mass breakouts and helicopter airlifts. Jailbreak is a fascinating chronicle, with each chapter featuring a history altering 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 epic 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.

CONTENTS
1. Politics and Ideals
2. Conspirators
3. Infamy
4. 1873–1917 Constitution
5. Members
6. Supreme Council
7. Infiltration
8. Principals: Hobson, Clarke, MacDermott
9. Guns and Plans
10. Disorganisation
11. Rising
12. Post Mortem
13. Reorganisation
14. Collins Emerges
15. Elections
16. 1917–22 Constitution
17. The Candidate
18. GHQ
19. 1918 Election
20. Killing
21. Relationships
22. Brugha
23. Truce
24. Talking
25. Three Days in December
26. Divides
27. 1922 Constitution
28. Civil War
29. 1923 Constitution
30. Mutiny
31. ‘That’s That’