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
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