HM Prison Armagh 1979, Agnes Wallace (40), a prison officer, was shot dead and three colleagues were injured in an Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) gun and grenade attack outside the prison. The prison was the scene of a protest by female Irish republican prisoners demanding the reinstatement of political status, although the numbers involved were much smaller than in the Maze (also known as Long Kesh) men's prison. As all women prisoners in Northern Ireland already had the right to wear their own clothes, they did not stage any sort of blanket protest, but the no wash protest included the smearing of
Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape observed already, as other Ministers are wont to use State cars. The IRA released a statement on the escape, which read, "Three republican prisoners were rescued by a special unit from Mountjoy Prison on Wednesday. The operation was a complete success and the men are now safe, despite a massive hunt by Free State forces". Shortly after the escape Twomey gave an exclusive interview to German magazine "Der Spiegel", where the reporter said people throughout Europe were joking about the incident as "the escape of the century". Irish rebel band the Wolfe Tones wrote a song celebrating the escape called