REPUBLICAN LEADERS IN the former Maze Prison allowed IRA prisoners to continue work on an escape tunnel as a “form of occupational therapy”, even though they had no intention of letting their fellow inmates escape. 

The claim is made in newly released State Papers from 1997 which also show tensions among republican factions in the prison during the Peace Process. 

In an internal Department of Foreign Affairs memo, an official of the Anglo-Irish Secretariat in Belfast revealed a conversation with Briege Gadd of the Northern Ireland Probation Board.

The conversation took place in April 1997, after the IRA’s first major ceasefire had ended but before the final ceasefire in July 1997. 

In March of that year, a 12m tunnel was discovered that began in a cell in one of the H-blocks and went underneath a fence. The tunnel was reportedly about 30m shy of a perimeter fence. 

The tunnel was at least 1.5m (5 feet) underground, was lit by electric lights and was supported by chair legs and bed boards. 

The discovery of the tunnel prompted concerns about security in the jail but Gadd outlined her view that the prisoners would never have been allowed leave. 

“Her understanding is that the work was approved by the Republican leadership in the Maze but that the latter, for various reasons, had no intention of allowing it to be completed,” the report of the conversation states. 

The project would have had value as a form of occupational therapy, to keep prisoners occupied and away from drugs. However, the Republican command structure would have been aware that, had the escape succeeded, the prisoners concerned would in all likelihood have been rearrested not long afterwards and would have found themselves back in prison, paying a stiff penalty (in the form of an additional tariff) at a time when, conceivably, a renewed ceasefire might be letting many of their colleagues out. 

Gadd also outlined to Irish officials that there was internal Republican politics at play, as the leadership in the prison “support Adams and the political wing of the movement” and that if “a number of hardline Republican prisoners” escaped they might “stir up trouble”. 

For these various reasons, Ms Gadd understands, the Republican leadership in the prison always intended to intervene to halt the escape attempt shortly before the tunnel was finished. They would also have been conscious, of course, of the propaganda value of even a failed escape bid.

“Whether they tipped off the prison authorities, or merely allowed some detail to attract the latter’s attention, is unimportant. One way or another, they were going to abort the operation. ”

Prison escapes, both attempted and successful, were common among IRA prisoners during The Troubles. The 1983 escape at the Maze involving 38 republican prisoners including Bobby Storey and Gerry Kelly remains the largest prison breakout in UK history. 

The 1998 Good Friday Agreement provided for the phased release of paramilitary prisoners who were members of organisations that maintained a ceasefire.

The release of prisoners began in 1998 and continued to 2000 when the Maze Prison was closed.