Friday, September 27, 2013

This Day in History: Sep 27, 1937: Balinese Tiger declared extinct.

 File:BaronOscarVojnich3Nov1911Ti.jpg

The Bali tiger (Panthera tigris balica), harimau Bali in Indonesian, or referred to as samong in archaic Balinese language,[2] was a subspecies of tiger which was found solely on the small Indonesian island of Bali. This was one of three subspecies of tigers found in Indonesia, together with the Javan tiger, which is also extinct, and the critically endangered Sumatran tiger. It was the smallest of the tiger subspecies.
The last specimen definitely recorded was a female shot at Sumbar Kima, west Bali, on September 27, 1937. However, a few animals likely survived into the 1940s and possibly 1950s.[3] The subspecies became extinct because of habitat loss and hunting.[4] Given the small size of the island, and limited forest cover, the original population could never have been large.

Le tigre de Bali

Characteristics 

Size

The Bali tiger was the smallest of all nine tiger subspecies, rather comparable with the leopard or cougar in size. The weight of a male was usually 90–100 kg (198-221 lb); that of a female was 65–80 kg (142-175 lb). The male was about 220 cm (7.2 ft or 86.6 in) in length (with tail), and the female 195–200 cm (6.4-6.6 ft, 76.8-78.7 in).

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Appearance

Bali tigers had short fur that was a deeper, darker orange and had fewer stripes than other tiger subspecies. Occasionally, between the stripes, were small black spots. Bali tigers also had unusual, bar-shaped patterns on their heads. The white fur on their underbellies often stood out more than that of the other tiger subspecies because of its darker-colored fur. The white fur also had a more distinct and curved line.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQlmE_BuTFGIz3dGG_DuNx_JWEowW40Z22gSt1nTr5dptvSh3dC

Diet

They preyed on most mammals that lived within their habitat. Their major sources of food were wild boar, rusa deer, Indian muntjac, red junglefowl, monitor lizards, monkeys, and possibly banteng (the last now also extirpated on the island). The only known predators of Bali tigers were humans.

Reproduction

Bali tigers had an average gestation period of 14-15 weeks. They gave birth to two or three cubs per litter. The average birth weight of a cub was two to three pounds. Cubs were born blind and helpless, and were weaned around one year of age, becoming fully independent at 18 months to two years of age. Their lifespans were about eight to 10 years.

Relationship to the Javanese tiger

 http://www.uwec.edu/jolhm/eh3/group10/hunters%20with%20bali%20tiger.jpg

Two common theories regarding the divergence of Balinese and Javan tigers are discussed: The first suggests the two subspecies developed when Bali became isolated from Java by formation of the Bali Strait by rising sea levels after the ice age. This split the tigers into two groups which then went on to develop independently.[citation needed] The second possibility is the tigers swam from one island to colonize the other. The Bali Strait is only 2.4 km wide, making it well within the swimming ability of the average tiger. Whichever it was, the two went on to become quite different.[citation needed]

http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/images/Bali_tiger-shot-1925.jpg

Documentation, hunting and tiger culture in Bali

In Balinese culture, the tiger had a special place in folk tales and traditional arts, as in the Kamasan paintings of Klungkung kingdom. However, they were perceived as a destructive force, and culling efforts were encouraged until extinction.

Bali-Tiger-shot-1911

Very few reliable accounts of encounters and even fewer visual documentations remain. One of the most complete records was left by the Hungarian baron Oszkár Vojnich, who trapped, hunted, and took photos of a Balinese tiger. On November 3, 1911, he shot dead an adult specimen in the northwest region, between Gunung Gondol and Banyupoh River, documenting it in his book In The East Indian Archipelago (Budapest 1913).[5]

http://andysworld.net/images/Tiger_Analysis/Bali%20Tiger/Bali%20Tiger%20Leiden.jpg

According to the same book, the preferred method of hunting tigers in the island was catching them with a large, heavy steel foot trap hidden under bait (goat or muntjak), and then killing them with a firearm at close range.

http://kotsobaka.com/upload/sobitie/javan_tiger.jpg

A final blow to the island's already low tiger population came during the Dutch colonial period, when shikari hunting trips were conducted by European sportsmen coming from Java, armed with high-powered rifles and a romantic but disastrous Victorian hunting mentality. Surabayan gunmaker E. Munaut is confirmed to have killed over 20 Bali tigers in only a few years.[5]

The last confirmed tiger sighting was of an adult female, killed on Sep. 27, 1937, at Sumbar Kima, in western Bali. Since then, claims of sighting have been made, but without proof, mostly by forestry officers, in 1952, 1970, and 1972. Any remaining tigers likely were pushed to the western side of the island, mostly into area that is now West Bali National Park, established in 1947.

File:Bali Barat NP 2009.jpg

The Balinese tiger was never captured alive on film or motion picture, or displayed in a public zoo, but a few skulls, skins, and bones are preserved in museums. The British Museum in London has the largest collection, with two skins and three skulls; others include Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt, Naturkunde Museum in Stuttgart, Naturalis museum in Leiden and Zoological Museum of Bogor, Indonesia, which owns the remnants of the last known Balinese tiger. In 1997, a skull emerged from the old collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, and was scientifically studied and properly documented.[6]

Unlike stag hunting, which they mastered, very few, if any, Balinese embraced tiger hunting before the arrival of Europeans to the island, because tigers were seen as evil, dangerous creatures. Still, tigers had a well-defined position in folkloric beliefs and magic. For example, the Balinese considered the ground powder of tiger whiskers to be a potent and undetectable poison for one's foe.[7] According to the same book mentioning this, Miguel Covarrubias's "Island Of The Gods", 1937, when a Balinese baby was born, he was given a protective amulet necklace with black coral and "a tiger's tooth or a piece of tiger bone".[8]


Like in other Asian nations, Balinese people are fond of wearing tiger parts as jewelry for status or spiritual reasons, such as power and protection. Necklaces of teeth and claws or male rings cabochoned with polished tiger tooth ivory still exist in everyday use. Since tigers have disappeared on both Bali and neighboring Java, old parts have been recycled, or leopard and sun bear body parts have been used, instead. One of the traditional Balinese dances, the Barong, still preserves in one of its four forms, a type called the Tiger Barong (Barong Macan).

 http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oeQsNnYP7JM/UH0dCig92qI/AAAAAAAAAIM/feM02bQxEgE/s640/baron+dance++09.jpg


 References
  1. Jump up ^ Jackson, P. & Nowell, K. (2008). Panthera tigris ssp. balica. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
  2. Jump up ^ History Of The Indian Archipelago, volume II, John Crawfurd, 1820, Edinburgh, pp. 144.
  3. Jump up ^ IUCN, IUCN RED List of Threatened Species accessed 24 June 2010
  4. Jump up ^ petermaas.nl
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Vojnich, G. 1913: A Kelet-Indiai Szigetcsoporton [in the East Indian Archipelago]. Singer & Wolfner, Budapest, pp. 264.
  6. Jump up ^ Buzas, B. and Farkas, B. 1997. An additional skull of the Bali tiger, Panthera tigris balica (Schwarz) in the Hungarian Natural History Museum. Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica Vol 11 pp: 101-105.
  7. Jump up ^ Miguel Covarrubias, Island Of Bali, 1937, NY published by Alfred A. Knopf Inc., pp. 75.
  8. Jump up ^ Miguel Covarrubias, Island Of Bali, 1937, NY published by Alfred A. Knopf Inc., pp. 105.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

This Day in History: Sep 26, 1580: Drake circumnavigates the globe

 File:1590 or later Marcus Gheeraerts, Sir Francis Drake Buckland Abbey, Devon.jpg
 File:Francis Drake Signature.svg
English seaman Francis Drake returns to Plymouth, England, in the Golden Hind, becoming the first British navigator to sail the earth.

 File:Sfec goldenhind02crop.jpg

 File:DRAKE 1577-1580.png

On December 13, 1577, Drake set out from England with five ships on a mission to raid Spanish holdings on the Pacific coast of the New World. After crossing the Atlantic, Drake abandoned two of his ships in South America and then sailed into the Straits of Magellan with the remaining three. A series of devastating storms besieged his expedition in the treacherous straits, wrecking one ship and forcing another to return to England. Only the Golden Hind reached the Pacific Ocean, but Drake continued undaunted up the western coast of South America, raiding Spanish settlements and capturing a rich Spanish treasure ship.

 File:New Albion. English galleon "Golden Hinde" by Sir Francis Drake. Oil on canvas. 60 x 90 cm..jpg
 File:Drake CA 1590.jpg

Drake then continued up the western coast of North America, searching for a possible northeast passage back to the Atlantic. Reaching as far north as present-day Washington before turning back, Drake paused near San Francisco Bay in June 1579 to repair his ship and prepare for a journey across the Pacific. Calling the land "Nova Albion," Drake claimed the territory for Queen Elizabeth I.

 File:DrakeKnightedTavistockMonument.jpg
 File:Sir Francis Drake And His Coat Of Arms.gif

In July, the expedition set off across the Pacific, visiting several islands before rounding Africa's Cape of Good Hope and returning to the Atlantic Ocean. On September 26, 1580, the Golden Hind returned to Plymouth, England, bearing its rich captured treasure and valuable information about the world's great oceans. In 1581, Queen Elizabeth I knighted Drake during a visit to his ship. The most renowned of the Elizabethan seamen, he later played a crucial role in the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The explorer died 1596 at the age of 56.

File:DrakeMonumentTavistock.jpg

 File:Loutherbourg-Spanish Armada.jpg
 File:BurialOfDrakeTavistockMonument.jpg

 File:DrakeStatueTavistock.jpg

Taken from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/drake-circumnavigates-the-globe [26.09.2013]

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

This Day in History: Sep 25, 1983: The Maze Prison escape (known to Irish republicans as the Great Escape)

 http://www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2009/08/26-week/images/maze.jpg

The Maze Prison escape (known to Irish republicans as the Great Escape) took place on 25 September 1983 in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. HM Prison Maze (previously known as Long Kesh) was a maximum security prison considered to be one of the most escape-proof prisons in Europe, and held prisoners convicted of taking part in armed paramilitary campaigns during the Troubles. In the biggest prison escape in British history, 38 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoners, who had been convicted of offenses including murder and causing explosions, escaped from H-Block 7 (H7) of the prison. One prison officer died of a heart attack as a result of the escape and twenty others were injured, including two who were shot with guns that had been smuggled into the prison. The escape was a propaganda coup for the IRA, and a British government minister faced calls to resign. The official inquiry into the escape placed most of the blame onto prison staff, who in turn blamed the escape on political interference in the running of the prison.

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Previous escapes

 
During the Troubles, Irish republican prisoners had escaped from custody en masse on several occasions. On 17 November 1971, nine prisoners dubbed the "Crumlin Kangaroos" escaped from Crumlin Road Jail when rope ladders were thrown over the wall. Two prisoners were recaptured, but the remaining seven managed to cross the border into the Republic of Ireland and appeared at a press conference in Dublin.[1]

 Wanted1981

File:HMS Maidstone.jpg

On 17 January 1972, seven internees escaped from the prison ship HMS Maidstone by swimming to freedom, resulting in them being dubbed the "Magnificent Seven".[1][2]

 IRA Leadership

On 31 October 1973, three leading IRA members, including former Chief of Staff Seamus Twomey, escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin when a helicopter landed in the exercise yard of the prison. Irish band The Wolfe Tones wrote a song celebrating the escape called "The Helicopter Song", which topped the Irish popular music charts.[3][4][5]

 File:Royal Military Museum Brussels 2007 395.JPG

 19 IRA members escaped from Portlaoise Jail on 18 August 1974 after overpowering guards and using gelignite to blast through gates,[6] and 33 prisoners attempted to escape from Long Kesh on 6 November 1974 after digging a tunnel. IRA member Hugh Coney was shot dead by a sentry, 29 other prisoners were captured within a few yards of the prison, and the remaining three were back in custody within 24 hours.[5][7] In March 1975, ten prisoners escaped from the courthouse in Newry while on trial for attempting to escape from Long Kesh.[5]



 
 File:Vol. Larry Marley.jpg

The escapees included Larry Marley, who would later be one of the masterminds behind the 1983 escape.[8][9] On 10 June 1981, eight IRA members on remand, including Angelo Fusco, Paul Magee and Joe Doherty, escaped from Crumlin Road Jail. The prisoners took prison officers hostage using three handguns that had been smuggled into the prison, took their uniforms and shot their way out of the prison.[10]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/590000/images/_593194_fusco300.jpg 

Remembering shot police officer Glenn Goodman 

http://www.anphoblacht.com/files/old-images/2009/12/17/joe-doherty1-p24.jpg

1983 escape

 File:Maze Prison escape.jpg

HM Prison Maze was considered one of the most escape-proof prisons in Europe. In addition to 15-foot (4.6 m) fences, each H-Block was encompassed by an 18-foot (5.5 m) concrete wall topped with barbed wire, and all gates on the complex were made of solid steel and electronically operated.[11]

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/hmso/hennessy/hennessy84p79r.jpg

 http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/hmso/hennessy/hennessy84p82r.jpg


Prisoners had been planning the escape for several months. Bobby Storey and Gerry Kelly had started working as orderlies in H7, which allowed them to identify weaknesses in the security systems, and six handguns had been smuggled into the prison.[8] Shortly after 2:30 pm on 25 September, prisoners seized control of H7 by simultaneously taking the prison officers hostage at gunpoint in order to prevent them from triggering an alarm. One officer was stabbed with a craft knife, and another was knocked down by a blow to the back of the head. One officer who attempted to prevent the escape was shot in the head by Gerry Kelly, but survived.[8][12] By 2:50 pm the prisoners were in total control of H7 without an alarm being raised. A dozen prisoners also took uniforms from the officers, and the officers were also forced to hand over their car keys and details of where their cars were, for possible later use during the escape.[12]

 http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/hmso/hennessy/hennessy84p77r.jpg

 http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/hmso/hennessy/hennessy84p80r.jpg

A rear guard was left behind to watch over hostages and keep the alarm from being raised until they believed the escapees were clear of the prison, when they returned to their cells.[12] At 3:25 pm, a lorry delivering food supplies arrived at the entrance to H7, where Brendan McFarlane and other prisoners took the occupants hostage at gunpoint and took them inside H7. The lorry driver was told the lorry was being used in the escape, and he was instructed what route to take and how to react if challenged.[12] Bobby Storey told the driver that "This man [Gerry Kelly] is doing 30 years and he will shoot you without hesitation if he has to. He has nothing to lose".[8]

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/furniture/in_depth/northern_ireland/2000/maze_prison/gallery83_94.jpg

 
 
At 3:50 pm the prisoners left H7, and the driver and a prison orderly were taken back to the lorry, and the driver's foot tied to the clutch. 37 prisoners climbed into the back of the lorry, while Gerry Kelly lay on the floor of the cab with a gun pointed at the driver, who was also told the cab had been booby trapped with a hand grenade.[12] At nearly 4:00 pm the lorry drove towards the main gate of the prison, where the prisoners intended to take over the gatehouse. Ten prisoners dressed in guards' uniforms and armed with guns and chisels dismounted from the lorry and entered the gatehouse, where they took the officers hostage.[12]

 Maze Prison - Man escaped from prison in 1983

At 4:05 pm the officers began to resist, and an officer pressed an alarm button. When other staff responded via an intercom, a senior officer said while being held at gunpoint that the alarm had been triggered accidentally. By this time the prisoners were struggling to maintain control in the gatehouse due to the number of hostages.[12] Officers arriving for work were entering the gatehouse from outside the prison, and each was ordered at gunpoint to join the other hostages. Officer James Ferris ran from the gatehouse towards the pedestrian gate attempting to raise the alarm, pursued by Dermot Finucane. Ferris had already been stabbed three times in the chest, and before he could raise the alarm he collapsed.[12]

 http://i2.bebo.com/014/9/large/2007/07/30/12/4472549854a5129785134l.jpg

 

Finucane continued to the pedestrian gate where he stabbed the officer controlling the gate, and two officers who had just entered the prison. This incident was seen by a soldier on duty in a watch tower, who reported to the Army operations room that he had seen prison officers fighting. The operations room telephoned the prison's Emergency Control Room (ECR), which replied that everything was all right and that an alarm had been accidentally triggered earlier.[12]

 

 At 4:12 pm the alarm was raised when an officer in the gatehouse pushed the prisoner holding him hostage out of the room and telephoned the ECR. However, this was not done soon enough to prevent the escape. After several attempts the prisoners had opened the main gate, and were waiting for the prisoners still in the gatehouse to rejoin them in the lorry. At this time two prison officers blocked the exit with their cars, forcing the prisoners to abandon the lorry and make their way to the outer fence which was 25 yards away.[12]

 Maze Prison (Pic:PA)

 http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/hmso/hennessy/hennessy84p84r.jpg

Four prisoners attacked one of the officers and hijacked his car, which they drove towards the external gate. They crashed into a car near the gate and abandoned the car. Two escaped through the gate, one was captured exiting the car, and another was captured after being chased by a soldier.[12] At the main gate, a prison officer was shot in the leg while chasing the only two prisoners who had not yet reached the outer fence. The prisoner who fired the shot was captured after being shot and wounded by a soldier in a watch tower, and the other prisoner was captured after falling. The other prisoners escaped over the fence, and by 4:18 pm the main gate was closed and the prison secured, after 35 prisoners had successfully breached the perimeter of the prison.[12] The escape was the biggest in British history, and the biggest in Europe since World War II.[11][13]

 http://www.anphoblacht.com/files/old-images/2008/12/18/bobby.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Gerry_Kelly,_MLA.jpg/220px-Gerry_Kelly,_MLA.jpg

Outside the prison the IRA had planned a logistical support operation involving 100 armed members,[14] but due to a miscalculation of five minutes the prisoners found no transport waiting for them and were forced to flee across fields or hijack vehicles.[8][15] The British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary immediately activated a contingency plan, and by 4:25 pm a cordon of vehicle check points were in place around the prison, and others were later in place in strategic positions across Northern Ireland, resulting in the recapture of one prisoner at 11:00 pm. Twenty prison officers were injured during the escape, thirteen were kicked and beaten, four stabbed, two shot, and another, James Ferris, died after suffering a heart attack during the escape.[8][12]

Reaction

 Soldiers at scene of Maze escape

The escape was a propaganda coup and morale boost for the IRA, with Irish republicans dubbing it the "Great Escape".[8][11] Leading Unionist Ian Paisley called on Nicholas Scott, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, to resign. The British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made a statement in Ottawa during a visit to Canada, saying "It is the gravest [breakout] in our present history, and there must be a very deep inquiry".[11] The day after the escape, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland James Prior announced an inquiry would be headed by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, James Hennessy.[11][16] The Hennessy Report was published on 26 January 1984 placing most of the blame for the escape on prison staff, and made a series of recommendations to improve security at the prison.[12][17]

 http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/hmso/hennessy/hennessy84r.jpg


The report also placed blame with the designers of the prison, the Northern Ireland Office and successive prison governors who had failed to improve security.[12] James Prior announced the prison's governor had resigned, and that there would be no ministerial resignations as a result of the report's findings.[17][18] Four days after the Hennessy Report was published, then Minister for Prisons Nicholas Scott dismissed allegations from the Prison Governors Association and the Prison Officers Association that the escape was due to political interference in the running of the prison.[17] On 25 October 1984, nineteen prisoners appeared in court on charges relating to the death of prison officer James Ferris, sixteen of them charged with his murder.[8][17] A pathologist stated that the stab wounds Ferris suffered would not have killed a healthy man. The judge acquitted all sixteen as he could not correlate the stabbing to the heart attack.[8]

Escapees

 File:Sniperatwork.jpg

Fifteen escapees were captured on the first day, including four who were discovered hiding underwater in a river near the prison using reeds to breathe.[11][15] Four more escapees were captured over the next two days, including Hugh Corey and Patrick McIntyre who were captured following a two-hour siege at an isolated farmhouse.[11] Out of the remaining 19 escapees, 18 ended up in the republican stronghold of South Armagh where two members of the IRA's South Armagh Brigade were in charge of transporting them to safehouses,[19] and they were given the option of either returning to active service in the IRA's armed campaign or a job and new identity in the United States.[20]

File:Bogside (18), August 2009.JPG


Escapee Kieran Fleming drowned in the Bannagh River near Kesh in December 1984, while attempting to escape from an ambush by the Special Air Service (SAS) in which fellow IRA member Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde was killed.[21]
 

 File:Grand-Hotel-Following-Bomb-Attack-1984-10-12.jpg

 [ image: Magee: Murder plans]

Gerard McDonnell was captured in Glasgow in June 1985 along with four other IRA members including Brighton bomber Patrick Magee, and convicted of conspiring to cause sixteen explosions across England.[22] Séamus McElwaine was killed by the SAS in Roslea in April 1986,[23] and Gerry Kelly and Brendan McFarlane were returned to prison in December 1986 after being extradited from Amsterdam where they had been arrested in January 1986, leaving twelve escapees still on the run.[24]

Pádraig McKearney
 
Pádraig McKearney was killed by the SAS along with seven other members of the IRA's East Tyrone Brigade in Loughgall in May 1987, the IRA's biggest single loss of life since the 1920s.[25] In November 1987 Paul Kane and the mastermind of the escape Dermot Finucane,[15] brother of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane who was later killed by loyalist paramilitaries in 1989, were arrested in Granard, County Longford on extradition warrants issued by the British authorities.[26]


Robert Russell was extradited back to Northern Ireland in August 1988 after being captured in Dublin in 1984,[27][28] and Paul Kane followed in April 1989.[29] In March 1990 the Supreme Court of Ireland in Dublin blocked the extradition of James Pius Clarke and Dermot Finucane on the grounds they "would be probable targets for ill-treatment by prison staff" if they were returned to prison in Northern Ireland.[30][31]

 

Kevin Barry Artt, Pól Brennan, James Smyth and Terrence Kirby, collectively known as the "H-Block 4", were arrested in the United States between 1992 and 1994 and fought lengthy legal battles against extradition.[32][33] Smyth was extradited back to Northern Ireland in 1996 and returned to prison, before being released in 1998 as part of the Good Friday Agreement.[33] Tony Kelly was arrested in Letterkenny, County Donegal in October 1997,[34] and fought successfully against extradition.[35] In 2000 the British government announced that the extradition requests for Brennan, Artt and Kirby were being withdrawn as part of the Good Friday Agreement.[36] The men officially remain fugitives, but in 2003 the Prison Service said they were not being "actively pursued".[37]



Dermot McNally, who had been living in the Republic of Ireland and was tracked down in 1996,[33] and Dermot Finucane received an amnesty in January 2002, allowing them to return to Northern Ireland if they wished to.[38] However Tony McAllister was not granted an amnesty which would have allowed him to return to his home in Ballymurphy.[39] As of September 2003 two escapees, Gerard Fryers and Séamus Campbell, had not been traced since the escape.[40] Up to 800 republicans held a party at a hotel in Donegal in September 2003 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the escape, which was described by Ulster Unionist Party MP Jeffrey Donaldson as "insensitive, inappropriate and totally unnecessary".[37]

[ image: Kevin Artt: Convicted of murder]

Subsequent escape attempts

On 10 August 1984 loyalist prisoner Benjamin Redfern, a member of the Ulster Defence Association, attempted to escape from HM Prison Maze by hiding in the back of a refuse lorry, but died after being caught in the crushing mechanism.[41][42] On 7 July 1991 IRA prisoners Nessan Quinlivan and Pearse McAuley escaped from HM Prison Brixton, where they were being held on remand. They escaped using a gun that had been smuggled into the prison, wounding a motorist as they fled after escaping the prison.[43][44] On 9 September 1994 six prisoners including an armed robber, Danny McNamee and four IRA members including Paul Magee, escaped from HM Prison Whitemoor.[45]

 http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01291/whitemoor_prison_1291098c.jpg

The prisoners, in possession of two guns that had been smuggled into the prison, scaled the prison walls using knotted sheets.[45][46] A guard was shot and wounded during the escape, and the prisoners were captured after being chased across fields by guards and the police.[46] In March 1997 a 40-foot (12 m) tunnel was discovered in H7 at HM Prison Maze. The tunnel was fitted with electric lights, and was 80 feet (24 m) from the outside wall having already breached the block's perimeter wall.[47] On 10 December 1997 IRA prisoner Liam Averill, serving a life sentence after being convicted of the murder of two Protestants, escaped from HM Prison Maze dressed as a woman.[47] Averill mingled with a group of prisoners' families attending a Christmas party, and escaped on the coach taking the families out of the prison.[47][48]

 [ image: Danny McNamee: Broke out of Whitemoor in 1994]


Taken from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maze_Prison_escape [25.09.2013]



References
1.        ^ Jump up to: a b "Extracts from 'Internment' by John McGuffin (1973)". CAIN. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
2.        Jump up ^ Aran Foley (18 January 2007). "The Magnificent Seven". An Phoblacht. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
3.        Jump up ^ Louisa Wright (12 November 1973). "The Canny Copter Caper". TIME. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
4.        Jump up ^ Art Mac Eoin (1 November 2001). "Chopper escape from Mountjoy". An Phoblacht. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
5.        ^ Jump up to: a b c "IRA - the people's army". An Phoblacht. 28 July 2005. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
6.        Jump up ^ "Portlaoise escape re-union". An Phoblacht. 19 August 2004. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
7.        Jump up ^ "Today In Pictures". The Belfast Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
8.        ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i David McKittrick (17 September 2003). "The great escape". The Independent. Archived from the original on November 15, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
9.        Jump up ^ "Logue/Marley – Crumlin". Sinn Féin. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
10.     Jump up ^ "A Chronology of the Conflict - 1981". CAIN. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
11.     ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Louisa Wright (10 October 1983). "The I.R.A.'s "Great Escape"". TIME. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
13.     Jump up ^ O'Day, Alan (1997). Political Violence in Northern Ireland: Conflict and Conflict Resolution. Praeger Publishers. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-275-95414-7.
14.     Jump up ^ McKevoy, Kieran (2001). Paramilitary Imprisonment in Northern Ireland: Resistance, Management and Release. Oxford University Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-19-829907-3.
15.     ^ Jump up to: a b c "1983: Dozens escape in Maze break-out". BBC. 1983-09-25. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
16.     Jump up ^ "A Chronology of the Conflict - 1983". CAIN. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
17.     ^ Jump up to: a b c d "A Chronology of the Conflict - 1984". CAIN. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
18.     Jump up ^ Oonagh Gay and Thomas Powell (5 April 2004). Individual ministerial responsibility- issues and examples (PDF). House of Commons. p. 22. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
19.     Jump up ^ Harnden, Toby (1999). Bandit Country. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 210–211. ISBN 0-340-71736-X.
20.     Jump up ^ Moloney, Ed (2002). A Secret History of the IRA. Penguin Books. p. 291. ISBN 0-14-101041-X.
21.     Jump up ^ Urban, Mark (1993). Big Boys' Rules: SAS and the Secret Struggle Against the IRA. Faber and Faber. pp. 191–193. ISBN 0-571-16809-4.
22.     Jump up ^ Taylor, Peter (2001). Brits. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 266. ISBN 0-7475-5806-X.
23.     Jump up ^ Urban, p. 218.
24.     Jump up ^ "Dutch Extradite Two I.R.A. Fugitives". The New York Times. 4 December 1986. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
25.     Jump up ^ Urban, pp. 229-231.
26.     Jump up ^ Art Mac Eoin (30 November 2001). "Nationwide wave of repression". An Phoblacht. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
27.     Jump up ^ Scott MacLeod (5 September 1988). "Northern Ireland From Here to Eternity". TIME. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
28.     Jump up ^ "A Chronology of the Conflict - 1988". CAIN. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
29.     Jump up ^ "Adjournment Debate. - Extradition Case". Dáil Éireann. 13 April 1989. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
30.     Jump up ^ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 14 Mar 1990". House of Commons. 14 March 1990. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
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32.     Jump up ^ "Anger over IRA men's bail decision". BBC. 17 October 1998. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
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34.     Jump up ^ Sean Mac Bradaigh (23 October 1997). "Extradition aimed at undermining peace process". An Phoblacht. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
35.     Jump up ^ "Extradition (European Union Conventions) Bill, 2001: Second Stage". Dáil Éireann. 23 November 2001. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
36.     Jump up ^ Jim Dee (18 June 2008). "Brennan in Texas prison lockdown". The Irish Echo. Retrieved 2008-06-20.[dead link]
37.     ^ Jump up to: a b "Maze break-out 'party' condemned". BBC. 19 September 2003. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
38.     Jump up ^ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 9 Jan 2002 (pt 28)". House of Commons. 9 January 2002. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
39.     Jump up ^ Allison Morris (28 February 2002). "Attwood accuses Sinn Féin of blatant double standards over Exiles' amnesty". Irelandclick.com. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
40.     Jump up ^ Sinead King (14 September 2003). "Maze Escape Party Row". The People. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
41.     Jump up ^ Malcolm Sutton. "An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland". CAIN. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
42.     Jump up ^ Owen Bowcott (5 April 2007). "Thirty years on, the Maze reveals a secret". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
43.     Jump up ^ "A Chronology of the Conflict - 1991". CAIN. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
45.     ^ Jump up to: a b "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 19 Dec 1994". House of Commons. 19 December 1994. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
46.     ^ Jump up to: a b "Inquiry over helicopter escape-plot at Whitemoor inquiry at Whitemoor". The Independent. 23 March 1998. Archived from the original on November 15, 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
47.     ^ Jump up to: a b c "The Maze - home to paramilitaries". BBC. 16 March 1998. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
48.     Jump up ^ "A Chronology of the Conflict - 1997". CAIN. Retrieved 2007-11-08.