Séamus McElwaine judge describing him as a "dangerous killer" and recommending he spend at least 30 years in prison. On 25 September 1983, McElwaine was involved in the Maze Prison escape, the largest break-out of prisoners in Europe since World War II and in British prison history. 38 republican prisoners, armed with 6 handguns, hijacked a prison meals lorry and smashed their way out of the Maze prison. After the escape he joined an IRA Active Service Unit operating in the area of the border between Counties Monaghan and Fermanagh. The unit targeted police and military patrols with gun and bomb attacks,
Patrick Donnelly (Irish republican) Patrick Donnelly (Irish republican) Patrick Donnelly was an Irish Republican Army volunteer, perhaps best known for his part in the Crumlin Road Gaol breakout of 1943. Having been sentenced to twelve years imprisonment, Donnelly was Officer Commanding the IRA prisoners in 'A' Wing, when it was noticed that there was an unused trapdoor in the roof of a toilet block. It was decided that Donnelly, along with Hugh McAteer (whose suggestion it had been), Jimmy Steele, and Ned Maguire would escape through this, with the aid of rope ladders fashioned from torn bed sheets and across the prison roof, followed