Northern Ireland: The I.R.A.'s Great Escape

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In the breakout from the prison gate many of the fugitives simply flagged down passing motorists and forced them out of their cars. One group of about 15 men stole three vehicles from a local farm, forcing a teen-age boy to explain the automatic controls of a car. Another tried to escape in a taxi. Police dragged four men, all of them either naked or clad only in underpants, out of the nearby River Lagan, where they had been submerged and were breathing through reeds. Another was marched away, blood dripping from a gunshot wound to his arm. The apprehended man grinned at Eyewitness Winston English and said, "It was worth a try."

It was also a major propaganda coup for the I.R.A. The escape came after a wave of arrests and convictions during the past year (thanks to the testimony of several "supergrasses," or onetime terrorists turned informers) that has severely shaken the organization. The slang term to grass means to tip off policemen. Evidence from just one supergrass, Christopher Black, has led to 35 convictions, including that of Kevin Artt. Largely because of the informers, political murders in Northern Ireland have fallen dramatically, from 97 in 1982 to 47 so far this year. That sort of success led Ulster authorities to expect some sort of dramatic I.R.A. counterstroke.

When it came last week it brought jubilation to the organization's supporters and outrage to just about everyone else. The Rev. Ian Paisley, the militant Protestant leader, called for the resignation of Nicholas Scott, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Northern Ireland Office. Said British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in Ottawa at the start of a visit to Canada and the U.S.: "It is the gravest [breakout] in our present history, and there must be a very deep inquiry." An embarrassed James Prior, Britain's seasoned, avuncular Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, immediately announced a high-level inquiry headed by Sir James Hennessy, Britain's chief inspector of prisons.

The investigation will have to answer some potentially damaging questions. How did the prisoners obtain guns? Why was the prison's alarm system so ineffective? How did the escapees avoid so many checks? How was the prison staff deployed? Did some guards contribute to the security lapse? And how could such a thing happen in a fortress like Maze, which has every security device available, including multiple 15-ft. fences and an 18-ft. concrete wall topped with barbed wire around each cell block? All gates around the 144-acre complex are solid steel and electrically operated. The prison is even built on solid concrete to foil tunnel builders. If last week's angry mood holds, the investigation could claim some high-ranking victims. —By Louisa Wright