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
Brixton Prison IRA escape 1991 escape from a British prison in history. Both Pearse & Nessan were awaiting trial on charges relating to a suspected IRA plot to assassinate a former brewery company chairman, Sir Charles Tidbury. The escape happened at a period of heightened IRA activity in mainland Britain. In February 1991 the IRA had fired mortars at 10 Downing Street, home of the British Prime Minister and 11 days later bombed Victoria and Paddington stations in London resulting in one death and dozens of injuries. Two pistols were smuggled into Brixton prison to the IRA volunteers. When a prison guard came to open