Maze (HM Prison)

HM Prison Maze (known colloqually as The H Blocks, Long Kesh or The Maze) is a disused prison sited at the former RAF station at Long Kesh (it is still called Long Kesh by many Irish Republicans) near Lisburn, nine miles outside Belfast, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The name "Maze" is taken from the village of the same name near the prison. The prison and its inmates have played a prominent role in recent Irish history, notably in the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike. The prison was closed in 2000.

H-Blocks

Republicans convicted of offences after March 1, 1976 were housed in the eight new "H-Blocks" that had been constructed at Long Kesh, now officially HM Prison Maze. As soon as prisoners were transferred to the new blocks they refused to conform, again arguing that they were not common criminals. Their first act of defiance was to refuse to wear the prison uniforms. Not allowed their own clothes, they wrapped themselves in bedsheets. Prisoners participating in that protest were "on the blanket". By 1978 more than 300 men had joined the protest. The British government refused to yield, and after attacks on prisoners "slopping out" their chamber pots, they refused to leave their cells to wash and smeared their own excrement on the walls. But again the new 1979 government of Margaret Thatcher stood firm.

Related Topics:
March 1 - 1976 - On the blanket - 1978 - British government - 1979 - Margaret Thatcher

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Hunger strike

Republicans outside the prison took the battle to the media and both sides fought for public support. Inside the prison the prisoners took another step and organized a hunger strike.

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On October 27, 1980, seven Republican prisoners refused food and demanded political status. In December they called off the hunger strike when the government appeared to concede their demands. However, the government immediately reverted to their previous stance, confident the prisoners would not start another strike. Bobby Sands, the leader of the Provisional IRA prisoners, and a number of others began a second action on March 1, 1981. Outside the prison in a major publicity coup, Sands was nominated for Parliament and won the Fermanagh & South Tyrone by-election, 1981 (August). But the British government was still resisting and on May 5, after 66 days on hunger strike, Sands died. Another nine hunger strikers died by the end of August. More than 75,000 people attended Bobby Sands's funeral in Belfast.

Related Topics:
October 27 - 1980 - Bobby Sands - Provisional IRA - March 1 - 1981 - Fermanagh & South Tyrone by-election, 1981 (August) - May 5 - Belfast

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The six surviving hunger strikers ended the protest in October. Within a week the government allowed them to wear their own clothes, one of their key demands. The rest of their demands were conceded in the following months.

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Breakout

On September 23, 1983, the Maze suffered the largest break-out by prisoners from a British prison. 38 prisoners hijacked a prison meals lorry and smashed their way out. One prison officer, James Ferris, died of a heart attack while being held captive at knifepoint, and another five were injured. Nineteen of the prisoners were soon recaptured, but the remainder escaped. One of the escapees was later involved in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing.

Related Topics:
September 23 - 1983 - 1984 - Brighton hotel bombing

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Organisation

Over the 1980s the government slowly introduced changes, granting what some would see as political status in all but name. Republican and loyalist prisoners were housed according to group. They organised themselves along military lines and exercised wide control over their respective H-Blocks. The Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) leader Billy Wright was killed in December 1997 by Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners. The LVF wing also saw the only rape in the prison's history.

Related Topics:
1980s - Loyalist - LVF - Billy Wright - 1997 - INLA

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