Ned Maguire was an Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer from Belfast,[1] Quartermaster of the IRA Northern Command[2] and perhaps best known for his part in the Crumlin Road Gaol breakout of 1943.
Having been sentenced to six years imprisonment,[1] Maguire was with the other IRA prisoners in 'A' Wing, when it was noticed that there was an unused trapdoor in the roof of a toilet block.[1] It was decided that Patrick Donnelly, Hugh McAteer (whose suggestion it had been),[3] Jimmy Steele, and Maguire would escape through this, with the aid of rope ladders fashioned from torn bed sheets and across the prison roof, followed by a second wave led by Joe Cahill.[1] The escape of the first party took place as planned on 15 January 1943.[4] Maguire was in the party because his trade hade been as a roof slater, and Donnelly believed this particular skill would be useful breaking out of the attic and onto the prison roof; it was, therefore, Maguire who removed the slates that enabled the group to get out.[5] Apart from Steele slightly injuring himself, the escape was successful, and Maguire and the others made their way to a North Queen Street safe-house in the staunchly Republican New Lodge district of Belfast. Splitting up, he and Donnelly made their way four days later to Dublin;[6] Maguire did not remain there long, however, as Belfast Brigade had received word of a major tunnelling operation by the Republican prisoners in Derry prison. In order to provide logistical support for such an important escape- which was timed for 21 May[7]- he made his way to Derry. Four months later, he was arrested by the Gardaí in County Donegal.[8]
References
edit- ^ a b c d Anderson, B., Joe Cahill: A Life in the IRA, Dublin 2002, p. 86
- ^ Thorne, Kathleen (2019). Echoes of Their Footsteps Volume Three. Oregon: Generation Organization. p. 302. ISBN 978-0-692-04283-0.
- ^ Bower Bell, J., The Secret Army, Dublin 1990, p. 230
- ^ English, R., Armed Struggle: A History of the IRA, p. 69
- ^ Anderson, B., Joe Cahill: A Life in the IRA, Dublin 2002, pp. 86-7
- ^ Anderson, B., Joe Cahill: A Life in the IRA, Dublin 2002, p. 89
- ^ Coogan, T.P., The IRA, St Ives 1995, p. 185
- ^ Anderson, B., Joe Cahill: A Life in the IRA, Dublin 2002, pp. 92