Maze Prison escape the prison walls using knotted sheets. A guard was shot and wounded during the escape, and the prisoners were captured after being chased across fields by guards and the police. In March 1997 a tunnel was discovered in H7 at the Maze Prison. The tunnel was fitted with electric lights, and was from the outside wall, having already breached the block's perimeter wall. On 10 December 1997 IRA prisoner Liam Averill, serving a life sentence after being convicted of the murder of two Protestants, escaped from the Maze dressed as a woman. Averill mingled with a group of prisoners' families
Concerned Group for Republican Prisoners Concerned Group for Republican Prisoners The Concerned Group for Republican Prisoners (CGRP) was an Irish republican prisoners' support group. The CGRP was established on September 10, 2005 as the result of an internal dispute within the ranks of Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA) prisoners being held at Portlaoise Prison. That dispute led to a number of CIRA prisoners to leave the organisation. Three of these prisoners have since aligned themselves with the Irish National Liberation Army landing in the prison, but the others are now independent of any known paramilitary grouping and are known as the Republican Prisoners Group. They