Brixton Prison escape, 1980

THE ESCAPE of republican POW Gerry Tuite from Brixton Prison in London at the height of the Armagh/Long Kesh Hunger Strike in December 1980 was a tremendous morale boost to republicans.

While this had been the first jailbreak by a republican prisoner in England since the beginning of the IRA campaign in 1969, there had been a number of successful escapes from British jails during the previous 50 years. These included the first escape by four republicans from Usk Jail in Wales in January 1919, the month of the inaugural meeting of the First Dáil Éireann; the dramatic escape of six republicans from Strangeways Jail in Manchester in October 1919; and the breakout from Brixton Prison in July 1991.

The healthy tradition of escapes by Irish republicans from British jails was upheld by Tuite, a native of County Cavan who came from a staunchly republican family, when he escaped from the top-security wing of Brixton Prison in south London in the early hours of a Tuesday morning in mid-December 1980.

● Gerry Tuite

Tuite and two other (non-political) prisoners – Christopher Thompson and James Moody (who remained free for 13 years before being shot dead in London in 1993) – escaped by tunneling into one cell, where they broke through a wall in the prison wing into the prison yard and then scaled the outside wall to freedom.

Despite a major manhunt by the police for Tuite, which began immediately, his cell was found empty by startled warders. Described by Scotland Yard as their “Most Wanted Man” and “a master of disguise”, Tuite went into hiding and eventually returned safely to Ireland.

Gerry Tuite was being held on remand in Brixton Prison since his arrest in December of the previous year in connection with IRA bombings in London and Essex in December 1978. He was also awaiting trial, due to begin at the Old Bailey in March 1981 for purportedly plotting the jailbreak of Brian Keenan (serving a 21-year sentence in England), ironically out of the same jail, Brixton.

Subsequently charged with the escape in the Dublin Special Court in March 1982 under the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act 1976, Tuite was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment the following July.

The republican POW Gerry Tuite escaped from Brixton Prison on 16 December 1980, 35 years ago this week.