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IRA to hold Maze prison escape reunion
By David Lister, Ireland Correspondent
THE IRA is to hold a reunion dinner and dance to honour the 38 men who escaped from the Maze prison in a van in September 1983.
Several hundred republicans and their families are expected at the Holiday Inn in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, on Friday night for a celebration of one of the most notorious incidents of the Troubles. They are likely to include several IRA fugitives still technically wanted in Northern Ireland and among those offered an amnesty as part of a deal to revive the peace process.
One prison officer died of a heart attack after being stabbed with a prison workshop chisel during the escape and another guard was shot and wounded.
According to an advertisement in An Phoblacht, the republican newspaper: “The true story of the escape from Long Kesh will be told by Gerry Kelly, Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane and Bobby Storey . . . A special presentation will be made to honour those Volunteers who were directly involved with the escape and have since lost their lives.”
A night of dancing will be led by Derek Warfield, frontman of the Wolfe Tones. The tickets cost from £14.20 each.
When The Times telephoned one of two numbers in the advert, an event organiser said that tickets were selling out fast. “It’ll just be a bit of storytelling with a good bit of humour thrown in,” he said. “There will be a three-course buffet at some stage during the night and some dancing.”
A receptionist at the Holiday Inn in Letterkenny, just across the border in the Irish Republic, said that no additional security had been planned.
Jeffrey Donaldson, the Ulster Unionist MP, called upon police in the Irish Republic to watch the event closely in case any escapers still at large attended.
IRA to hold Maze prison escape reunion
By David Lister, Ireland Correspondent
THE IRA is to hold a reunion dinner and dance to honour the 38 men who escaped from the Maze prison in a van in September 1983.
Several hundred republicans and their families are expected at the Holiday Inn in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, on Friday night for a celebration of one of the most notorious incidents of the Troubles. They are likely to include several IRA fugitives still technically wanted in Northern Ireland and among those offered an amnesty as part of a deal to revive the peace process.
One prison officer died of a heart attack after being stabbed with a prison workshop chisel during the escape and another guard was shot and wounded.
According to an advertisement in An Phoblacht, the republican newspaper: “The true story of the escape from Long Kesh will be told by Gerry Kelly, Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane and Bobby Storey . . . A special presentation will be made to honour those Volunteers who were directly involved with the escape and have since lost their lives.”
A night of dancing will be led by Derek Warfield, frontman of the Wolfe Tones. The tickets cost from £14.20 each.
When The Times telephoned one of two numbers in the advert, an event organiser said that tickets were selling out fast. “It’ll just be a bit of storytelling with a good bit of humour thrown in,” he said. “There will be a three-course buffet at some stage during the night and some dancing.”
A receptionist at the Holiday Inn in Letterkenny, just across the border in the Irish Republic, said that no additional security had been planned.
Jeffrey Donaldson, the Ulster Unionist MP, called upon police in the Irish Republic to watch the event closely in case any escapers still at large attended.
