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,
Raid on Kielce Prison towns of Lesser Poland, underground organizations of the so-called Cursed soldiers attacked Communist prisons, releasing political prisoners. On 10 March 1945, a group of 100 Home Army soldiers escaped from a prison in Sandomierz. In the evening of 21 April 1945 in Jędrzejów, some 30 prisoners escaped from a local prison. In the night of 5/6 May 1945, a unit of 80 armed soldiers commanded by Captain Władysław Moleda took control of the town of Kozienice. Milicja Obywatelska officers were disarmed, but the rebels failed to capture the prison of local Urzad Bezpieczenstwa, where a number of Home Army soldiers