Brixton Prison IRA escape 1991 Brixton Prison IRA escape 1991 On the 7 July 1991 two Provisional IRA volunteers Pearse McAuley and his cellmate Nessan Quinlivan escaped from HM Prison Brixton using two hand guns smuggled into them and subduing a prison guard. It was one of the most serious IRA escapes from a prison since the 1983 Maze Prison escape During the Troubles, Irish republican prisoners had escaped from custody "en masse" on several occasions. On 17 November 1971, nine prisoners dubbed the "Crumlin Kangaroos" escaped from Crumlin Road Jail when rope ladders were thrown over the wall. Two prisoners were recaptured, but the
Greenough Regional Prison throwing mattresses over razor wire and climbing over. The prisoners had secretly brewed the alcohol in the prison and consumed it prior to their escape. Two prisoners escaped from the minimum security section of the prison in 2008 after digging their way out under a security fence using a pool cue and a dust pan. A report released in 2010 on conditions in the prison found that conditions were degrading with overcrowding forcing up to three inmates to share cells that were designed to hold one. At the time the prison was designed to hold a total population of 219