Maze/LongKesh

Tour of LongKesh Prison Tuesday, June 5th at 9:30 AM before going to Intercomm.

To elaborate on the analogy that our volunteer assignment is a bit like summer camp, today we took a field trip. Rob and I got a private tour of LongKesh prison.

This prison is famous for detainment of prisoners during the troubles, housing the 1981 hunger strikes, the 1983 breakout, and the recent plans to convert the space into a stadium.

The H Block and hospital where the hunger strike took place are being reserved and becoming an historical landmark. Memorials to this even can be found all over Ireland, and it was chilling to actually be there.
Irish Freedom Committee Page on the Hunger Strike
Wikipedia Irish Hunger Strike Article

We were walked through all the details of the 1983 breakout. Most of those who escaped left the country. There are two of the planners who give talks in pubs around Ireland about how they did it. The biggest weakness was that each H Block operated so independently. The prisoners were able to overtake their H Block and wait for the regular truck that comes by to make their escape further from there.

On our tour we saw block 3, which would be identical to block 7, which is being preserved because of all that happened there. We climbed one of the towers, from which we could see the walls, gates, govener rooms, and rooms for officers who had been threatened. The most the prison is know it hold was 1700 prisoners, with 1200 staff.