Cold Open

It’s just about closing time in the early morning hours of August 13th, 1975, at the Bayardo Bar, a popular watering hole in a predominantly Protestant neighborhood of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Patrons joke and laugh over pints of Guinness, enjoying a welcome respite from the oppressive violence that's become the norm in the region.

Northern Ireland is deep in a violent conflict over its affiliation with the United Kingdom, known as the Troubles. The nation has fallen into two camps: the primarily Protestant “Unionists”, who are sympathetic to the UK and want it to remain in control of Northern Ireland, and there are predominantly Catholic “Republicans,” who want to see Northern Ireland become a part of the already-independent Republic of Ireland. The fighting weighs heavy on civilian morale, but within the revelry of the pub, at least tonight, there's a welcome unity and the conflict is far from anyone's mind.

Until a surprise arrival.

Just outside, a stolen green Audi pulls up in front of the bar. The driver is 24-year-old Brendan “Bik” McFarlane, a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army, known as the IRA, one of the more extreme groups fighting for Northern Ireland. He’s joined by two other volunteers who have dedicated their lives to the IRA’s cause – waging acts of terror to persuade the United Kingdom to grant Northern Ireland its independence.

While Bik waits in the car, the two volunteers grab their weapons, approach the side entrance of the bar, and open fire, instantly killing the doorman. While those inside continue drinking and singing, unaware of what just occurred, one of the volunteers enters the pub and covertly drops a duffel bag near the door.

Then, the two men dash back to the getaway car, their hearts racing.

As Bik speeds away, the duffel bag, containing a ten-pound bomb, explodes inside the pub, sending debris flying and plunging Belfast into chaos.

Though the IRA members’ attack on Bayardo Bar will go to plan, their getaway will not. Bik and his fellow volunteers will be promptly located and identified as the perpetrators of the massacre responsible for killing three civilians and injuring over fifty. They will be tried and convicted for their crimes and remanded to the Maze, a top security prison used to house paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles.

But even behind bars, Bik will keep drawing attention to the IRA’s cause. Six years later, with the Troubles still raging, Bik will again dominate headlines in Ireland. This time, as commanding leader of all IRA prisoners detained at the Maze – a role which will see Bik mastermind the biggest jailbreak in the United Kingdom’s history on September 25th, 1983.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is September 25th, 1983: The Maze Prison Escape.

Act One: Bik and the IRA

It’s 1978 in Northern Ireland, three years after Brendan “Bik” McFarlane was arrested in Belfast.

Bik wraps himself in a blanket and walks down the cold, gray hallway of the H-Block building at the Maze, a high-security prison in Northern Ireland.

When Bik sped away from the Bayardo Bar, that day in August, he hoped for a quick and easy getaway. But law enforcement set out to find the culprits and scour the streets for the suspicious green Audi seen waiting outside the bar. Within just twenty minutes, they located the vehicle and Bik, and his two accomplices.

Their subsequent imprisonment has been a devastating blow for Bik, who has been part of the Irish Republican Army since the beginning, emerging as one of its most fervent members.

Bik joined the IRA at just 18 years old, right as the Troubles began. After returning to his hometown of Belfast following a year of study at a Roman Catholic seminary in Wales, Bik was disturbed to find his home shrouded in the beginnings of violence and chaos, torn politically and socially by religious lines.

As the nation grew more divided between Protestant Unionists and Catholic Republicans, Bik found himself swept up in the social upheaval. He quickly became indoctrinated in the philosophies of the Republican movement, dropped out of school, and joined the IRA in their fight for an independent Northern Ireland.

After years of training, he eventually gained the courage to carry out an attack on the Bayardo Bar. But for his role in the massacre, Bik was sentenced to life in prison and sent to the Maze, which houses upward of a thousand IRA members. So far, he’s spent two years at the maximum security prison, and all the while has stirred up trouble, most recently spurred on by a recent change in protocol.

At the start of the Troubles, prisoners accused of actions related to the conflict were granted Special Category Status. Considered to be prisoners of war, they received unique privileges like socialization with other prisoners, food packages, and the right to wear their own clothes instead of a prison uniform. But recently, the British government revoked the Special Category Status of Bik and the Maze’s other paramilitary prisoners.

Frustrated by their new status as mere common criminals, today, Bik has joined others in protest by refusing to don the assigned uniform they’re now required to wear, opting instead to wrap themselves in blankets.

At first, prison officials are baffled by the display. They write it off as an absurd, passing rebellion. But the inmates refuse to back down, and for days, the so-called Blanket Protest stretches on, and soon, prison officials start to retaliate, forcing Bik and his fellow demonstrators to spend up to twenty-four hours a day in their cells.

But as officers crack down on the prisoners, tensions inside the Maze only escalate. After one inmate is beaten and sent to solitary confinement, his fellow prisoners begin to destroy the furniture in their cells. Officers respond by removing the remaining furnishings, leaving prisoners with only a blanket and a mattress. In response to this, hundreds of inmates refuse to wash themselves and begin smearing their own excrement on the walls of their cells.

This catches the attention of the media, who dub the prisoners' latest retaliation the “Dirty Protest,” and begin following the prisoners’ plight in their newspapers and television shows.

Over the coming weeks, images of the inmates and their excrement-covered cells will be broadcast around the world, bringing newfound attention to their cause. Despite their untenable living conditions and frustrations with the changes in protocol, the morale of the prisoners will reach an all-time high.

Having caught the attention of the British government and the world with their “Dirty Protest,” the prisoners will issue their demands. These will include the right not to wear a prison uniform; the right not to do prison work; the right of free association with other prisoners; and the right to one visit, one letter, and one package per week.

At first, the British government will seem open to their demands, and the prisoners will celebrate what feels like a victory. But as months pass, with no clear changes in sight, the inmates will feel a little choice but to raise the stakes, risking their own lives for a chance at freedom.

Act Two: The Maze

It’s March 1st, 1981, in Northern Ireland, two years before members of the Irish Republican Army will carry out the largest jailbreak in the UK’s history.

Brendan “Bik” McFarlane sits on the edge of the bed in his cramped prison cell, stewing over his predicament.

Life for Bik and the other IRA prisoners at the Maze has been anything but idyllic these past few years. After their blanket protest failed to restore their status as political refugees, they kicked things up a notch, refusing to bathe and even using the walls of their cells as canvases for their feces.

This so-called Dirty Protest seemed promising. The media was talking about them so much that the British government was forced to listen. And as the possibility of negotiation opened up, British officials promised concessions. But eventually, it became clear that the prisoners’ demands were not going to be granted, so the inmates began looking for new ways to call attention to their cause.

Last fall, a handful of prisoners participated in a hunger strike that lasted 53 days, only coming to an end when one of the prisoners fell into a coma and almost died. Alarmed, the British government drew up concession documents that they pledged to follow through on. But that was five months ago, and the prisoners still have yet to see any of their demands met.

Now, Bik wonders what more they can do.

Fortunately, one of his fellow inmates has some ideas. As the Officer commanding all IRA prisoners at the Maze, Bobby Sands is also fed up, and ready to take action. So today, he initiates a second hunger strike.

While Bik doesn’t officially join the strike, he stands side by side with his fellow prisoners who do. The media covers Bobby over the course of his strike, rousing the interest of the Irish public, who bestow upon him national hero status. Images of Bobby’s face appear all over Belfast and again, the world becomes captivated by Northern Ireland’s Troubles. Eventually, Bobby’s popularity grows to such a fever pitch that he even defeats a Unionist party member to earn election to the British House of Commons while behind bars.

But he never gets a chance to carry out his term. On May 5th, 1981, after 66 days of fasting, Bobby Sands dies at the Maze, an event that incites a new wave of rioting across Northern Ireland.

Then after more prisoners die from the hunger strike, tensions are inflamed even further. Outside the prison, the IRA reinvigorates its campaign of guerilla warfare. And by the time the British government agrees to concessions in October 1981, 61 people have been killed by the IRA, and many more injured.

Back at the Maze, in the wake of Bobby Sands’s death, Bik assumes control of all IRA prisoners and is called on to determine their course of action.

Bik and his fellow inmates still want to try to improve their living conditions. And by now, Bik knows better than to trust the British government to follow through on concessions. He’s tired of the stalling. So, inspired by a successful jailbreak at a Belfast prison, where eight IRA members took officers hostage using smuggled handguns, Bik begins to hatch a new plan - a massive prisoner escape from the Maze.

But it won’t be easy. The Maze is designed to be one of the most escape-proof prisons in Europe. Each individual Block building is encompassed by an 18-foot wall topped with barbed wire and surrounded by a 15-foot fence. The gates inside the complex are built from solid steel and electronically operated, making it virtually impossible to break through, and all the while, the prison is heavily patrolled by armed guards and watchtowers 24 hours a day.

Bik knows there’s no sneaky way to escape. If they’re going to break out of the Maze, it will have to be done by force. But first, they need to collect some information. So, Bik charms prison officials into giving himself and other prisoners work as orderlies in H-block 7. This allows them to get a better understanding of the prison’s layout and inner workings, as well as the opportunity to identify weaknesses in its security system.

With this intelligence, Bik will begin to map out an escape route. As his plan takes form, he’ll manage to have handguns and knives smuggled in, though how he does this will never be revealed. With firearms in hand, his fellow prisoners briefed in their roles, and after months of research, Bik will have a seemingly foolproof plan assembled. The only thing left to do will be to execute it.

Act Three: Escape and Aftermath

It’s September 25th, 1983 at the Maze prison in Northern Ireland.

Brendan “Bik” McFarlane stands inside H-Block 7, adrenaline pumping through his blood. He’s spent countless hours formulating a plan to break out of the Maze. And now, he’s ready for action.

At just past 2:30 PM, he gives the go-ahead. Prisoners in H-block 7 use their smuggled handguns to take prison officers hostage. Armed with only batons, these officers have little choice but to submit. They hand over both their keys and their uniforms as they’re herded and then locked inside a cell.

Within minutes, the prisoners have control of the building.

Less than an hour later, a large truck carrying food supplies arrives at H-block 7. With the driver then held at gunpoint, Bik and 37 other prisoners climb into the truck and claim it as their getaway vehicle. When the truck arrives at the prison’s main gate, a group of prisoners, dressed in the officers’ stolen uniforms, jump out and storm the gatehouse, wresting control from the officers inside. Then as the main gate opens, they rush out and load themselves back into the food delivery truck.

Everything seems to be going according to plan. But as the last of the inmates climbs aboard the food delivery truck, they find out that other prison officers have been alerted to their escape. Before they can fully make it off the prison's ground, two officers stationed by the gate use their cars to block the exit, making it impossible for the truck to get through.

But undeterred, Bik directs the prisoners to abandon the truck and make their way on foot to the outer fence; the last checkpoint they must pass through before they are free. There, one prisoner is shot and wounded by an armed soldier in a watch tower while another is captured after falling down. But Bik and 35 others manage to successfully climb the fence and make their way beyond the prison’s perimeter.

But outside the prison’s walls, a new problem emerges. Without the truck, the inmates have no form of transportation. They’re forced to either hijack vehicles or continue their escape on foot.

And by now, the British Army has caught wind of the incident, and vehicle checkpoints have already been established all around the prison. Authorities will manage to recapture half of the prisoners by the end of the day. But the remaining escapees will find their way to IRA-sponsored safe houses.

Bik will be one of them. And now a free man, he’ll resume his IRA activities and manage to evade capture until January of 1986, when he and another escapee will be caught in the Netherlands and subsequently returned to the Maze, where he’ll remain until he’s paroled in 1997. Eventually, all but two of Bik’s fellow escapees will also be recaptured.

But the year after Bik receives parole, the British and Irish governments will sign the Good Friday Agreement, establishing a power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland, one that will ease the violence of the Troubles. As part of this agreement, hundreds of paramilitary prisoners will be released, leading the Maze to close its doors in the year 2000.

Five years later, the IRA will officially decommission its weapons and effectively end its formal campaign of terror against the British government. But new splinter groups will form, and continue the pursuit of independence for Northern Ireland, furthering the cause that once led 38 prisoners to launch their historic escape from Maze prison on September 25th, 1983.

Outro

Next on History Daily. September 26th, 1960.  John F. Kennedy faces off against Richard Nixon in the first presidential debate to be broadcast live on television.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Katrina Zemrak.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Weiss.

Executive Producers are Alexandra Currie-Buckner for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser