14/06/2026
Remembering The Crumlin Road Gaol Escape✊🇮🇪
On June 10th 1981, eight Irish Republican prisoners on remand in Belfast's Crumlin Road Gaol shot their way to freedom from one of the most heavily guarded prisons in Europe, in one of the most daring IRA escapes ever.
The men came out the way they went in - through the front gate.
When the warders came to return one set of prisoners to their wing, the operation began.
One of the Volunteers produced a gun, forced the warders to release the other prisoners and then locked about ten warders in the cell.
They then made their way to the B wing's visiting area and arrested all the warders, visitors and solicitors who were there, before locking about thirty up in a room.
One warder, named Killen, went for his baton, was disarmed and hit over the head.
Two warders and a solicitor were ordered to strip, and three of the IRA Volunteers, dressed in two uniforms and a suit respectively, calmly walked to the main gate, which was opened for them.
They then pulled guns on the real warders in this key security area and made them lie on the ground until their five comrades ran across a small courtyard to join them.
Once outside, however, the alarm was set off, and British army sentries poured a hail of automatic fire at the prisoners from a watch tower before they could reach the front gate.
Undeterred, the prisoners dashed through the bullets, weaving from side to side to throw off their attackers.
Outside the Gaol, cars had been parked by the IRA's Belfast Brigade in the car park of the health clinic beside the courthouse, their ignition keys hidden under the floor mats.
The prisoners ran across the road towards the health centre, dodging bullets as they went. The escapees headed towards the loyalist Shankill area, where they commandeered cars to help their getaway.
As the men made their escape, clearly visible to Republican prisoners in cells on the top landing of A-wing, loud cheers went up, and makeshift flags were flown from the windows.
Seven of the escapees, known as the 'M60 gang', were brothers Tony and Gerry Sloan, Michael "Beaky" McKee, Joe Doherty, Angelo Fusco, Patrick 'Dingus' Magee and Tony Campbell.
All were from Belfast and charged in connection either with an M60 machine gun attack in 1980 on an RUC patrol in Andersonstown or with the siege on the Antrim Road in May 1980, when a SAS Captain was killed.
The eighth escapee was Pete Ryan from Ardboe, County Tyrone, who had been charged with killing an RUC Reservist and a UDR soldier.
All eight men reached safe houses within the hour and, after lying low for a short while, were spirited over the border to begin new lives 'on the run.'
There were many more attempts to break free from Crumlin Road Jail before it finally closed its doors in April 1995, having been used as a weapon in the attempted suppression of the Irish freedom struggle for 151 years.
