Tag Archives: IRA

March 13th 2024

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Title: The 1973 Escape from Mountjoy Prison by Helicopter
Speaker: Dr Mary Muldowney, 
Time: @ 7:45 PM
Location: Iona Pastoral Centre

About the Author:
Mary Muldownney – Historian in Residence – Dublin North-West at Dublin City Council
Source: Linkedin page.

Quote: “My employment history includes research and writing, lecturing and training and project management. My current role as Historian in Residence for Dublin City Council involves all of the above, as well as enthusiasm for meeting people and encouraging them to engage with their own histories. In January 2024 I moved my area of responsibility from Dublin Central to Dublin North-West.

I am the author of books and journal articles based primarily on oral history interviews. These are in addition to a range of other publications (see indicative list below)”.

Sample list from 20 publications (via LinkedIn)

  • With Kelly Fitzgerald, “Oral Life Stories” in Liam Harte (Ed.), The History of Irish Autobiography.With Kelly Fitzgerald, “Oral Life Stories” in Liam Harte (Ed.), The History of Irish Autobiography.Cambridge University Press · Jan 1, 2018Cambridge University Press · Jan 1, 2018
  • “The brief and troubled life of the Sunday Journal” The Sunday Papers. The History of Ireland’s Weekly Press. “The brief and troubled life of the Sunday Journal” The Sunday Papers. The History of Ireland’s Weekly Press. Four Courts Press · Jan 1, 2018Four Courts Press · Jan 1, 2018
  • “That crazy idea of giving women the vote” in They didn’t go away. Women after the 1916 Rising.“That crazy idea of giving women the vote” in They didn’t go away. Women after the 1916 Rising.Stoneybatter & Smithfield People’s History Project · Jan 1, 2017Stoneybatter & Smithfield People’s History Project · Jan 1, 2017

The Mountjoy Prison Escape by Helicopter 1973

The Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape occurred on October 31, 1973, when three Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, Ireland, by boarding a hijacked helicopter that briefly landed in the prison’s exercise yard. The escape was a major event that made headlines around the world and was an embarrassment to the Irish coalition government led by Fine Gael’s Liam Cosgrave.

The escapees, Seamus Twomey, J. B. O’Hagan, and Kevin Mallon, were recaptured within months, but the incident was a significant blow to the government’s security measures and led to a massive manhunt involving 20,000 members of the Irish Defence Forces and Garda Síochána.

AP Interview with helicopter pilot Captain Thompson Boyes, 1973.

Source: Associated Press

Photo Gallery: Click on any image to open the Gallery.
An example of the Aérospatiale Alouette II helicopter used in the escape, with actual photos from a forensic examination of the helicopter used (2 photos), and the reporter Tom McCaughren reporting on the event for the main TV channel in Ireland RTÉ from Mountjoy Prison.
Sources: commons.wikimedia.org; dublinfestivalofhistory.ie; anphoblacht.com; The Irish News (2 images).

Éalú (Escape) – Mountjoy Prison
– originally a TG4 docudrama. (Irish language with English subtitles)

Source: A Troubled Land Archive

IRA Mountjoy Helicopter Escape: Up and Away

Source: PushPull Production.
A 2021 update documentary as told through the eyes of four men who were in the prison that day, two Wardens and two Republican prisoners. This documentary illustrates how a 60 second event that took place over 50 years ago is imprinted on the memory of those who witnessed it.

September 14th 2022

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Title ‘Ireland’s Special Branch’
Speaker: Gerard Lovett
Time: @ 7:45 PM
Location: Iona Pastoral Centre

NOTE FROM AOIFE O’TIERNEY
Gerard Lovett will speak to us about the content of his new book: Ireland’s Special Branch (see details below)

The book will be available to purchase. Helen Dunne of Wordwell, the publishers, will be there with books for sale on the night. The price is €20.00. This book took long years of research so congratulations are due to Gerard on his achievement.

This will be a live talk at the Iona Centre so please make a special effort to attend. The meeting starts at 7.45 p.m. Admission for members is €3 and for visitors €5. A Cupán Tae will follow. The AGM will be in October and is also the time for renewal of subs.

Hoping to see you all,
Aoife

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Ireland’s Special Branch: The inside story of their battle with the IRA and other groups 1922-1947.

Publication date: August 2022
ISBN: 978-1-913934-29-3
Price: €20

“A gang of police thugs.”

“Renegades and perverted types.”

These were just some of the ways in which the men and women of the Garda Special Branch were described by their enemies within the anti-Treaty IRA. What follows in this work is the gripping narrative of the often brutal and violent struggle for supremacy between these two sides.

It explores the foundation and the inner workings of a squad of detectives, initially called the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), based in Oriel House, Dublin, in August 1922 and their transition into what became known as the Special Branch. It further details the history of the turbulent decades which followed, and the regular confrontations with the IRA in which many officers of Ireland would make the ultimate sacrifice. 

About the Author:

Gerard Lovett is a retired member of An Garda Síochána and retired as a detective inspector in the Garda Special Branch in 2004. Since then, he was general secretary of the Garda Síochána Retired Members’ Association for seven years and was editor of their quarterly magazine Síocháin. He has written numerous articles on police history and has regularly given lectures to historical societies on both garda and RIC history, as well as famous historical murder cases.