In September 1983, the Irish Republican Army planned and executed a mass escape from Her Majesty's Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. 38 prisoners made it beyond the walls of the Maze, which the UK government had boasted was the most secure prison in all of Europe.

The IRA prisoners were hell-bent on embarrassing the UK government and attracting attention to their cause – to form a united Ireland.

But to fully understand these IRA prisoners' determination which led to the biggest escape in British penal history, the first step is to look back at the events that shaped modern attitudes.