Larry Marley to come to fruition, he joined the blanket protest in the Maze's H-Blocks for four years. In September 1983, he helped Brendan McFarlane, Bobby Storey and Gerry Kelly to orchestrate the successful mass escape of 38 republican prisoners from the Maze. It was the largest prison escape in British penal history. According to a BBC documentary about the escape, Marley was the mastermind, having come up with the idea with the aim of embarrassing British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, as the Maze was considered to be one of the world's most secure prisons. Marley, unlike his three co-conspirators, did not
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