THE 1971-72 period of internment became notable for a number of spectacular escapes. famous was from the Maidstone, an ex-Royal Navy ship converted to a floating prison and moored in Belfast's River Lagan.
Maidstone smeared themselves all over with butter. Then they daubed on boot polish, and clad for the most part only in football shorts, cut through a bar on a porthole with a fret saw, and sappea trough.
slipped into the water.
was near freezing point, there were constant searchlights on the water, and once clear from the porthole the men had to overcome barbed wire, and then swim some 400 yards;
Somehow they managed to do it yaras away trom where tneir comrades were waiting to pick them up.
6.30am they stole a double decker bus and headed for the Markets area of Belfast. away, and as they arove into te Markers ine district was surrounded by the British Army.
the public there was no way the men could escape. But as the colonel was saying this the 'magnificent seven', as they were instantly dubbed, were already in another part of Belfast, having been whisked away. by local people in the Markets.
ing a press conference and telling the world their story. On 10 January 1972 seven of the internees on the Their comrades chatted to the armed guards as the men It was 5pm on a cold, dark January evening. The water After a 20-minute swim they found land — but it was 500 All night they hid in a nearby bus terminus. Then at They were spotted as they sped A confident Army colonel appeared on televisionio tell Within a week the magnificent seven were in Dublin, givRepression Faulkner was in trouble. For the previous three years the ruling Unionst Party had a civil rights movement demanding equal treatment lor calmolics A mIxIure repression and had not succeeded in dampente biotes.
On the contrary, the battle against Unionism had at least ¡llo a call paign against the very istence of the North of Ireland sidle