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,
Greenough Regional Prison throwing mattresses over razor wire and climbing over. The prisoners had secretly brewed the alcohol in the prison and consumed it prior to their escape. Two prisoners escaped from the minimum security section of the prison in 2008 after digging their way out under a security fence using a pool cue and a dust pan. A report released in 2010 on conditions in the prison found that conditions were degrading with overcrowding forcing up to three inmates to share cells that were designed to hold one. At the time the prison was designed to hold a total population of 219