Brixton Prison IRA escape 1991

During the Troubles, Irish republican prisoners had escaped from custody en masse on several occasions. On 17 November 1971, nine prisoners dubbed the "Crumlin Kangaroos" escaped from Crumlin Road Jail when rope ladders were thrown over the wall. Two prisoners were recaptured, but the remaining seven managed to cross the border into the Republic of Ireland and appeared at a press conference in Dublin. On 17 January 1972, seven internees escaped from the prison ship HMS Maidstone by swimming to freedom, resulting in them being dubbed the "Magnificent Seven". On 31 October 1973, three leading IRA members, including former Chief of Staff Seamus Twomey, escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin when a hijacked helicopter landed in the exercise yard of the prison. Irish band The Wolfe Tones wrote a song celebrating the escape called The Helicopter Song, which topped the Irish popular music charts. 19 IRA members escaped from Portlaoise Jail on 18 August 1974 after overpowering guards and using gelignite to blast through gates, and 33 prisoners attempted to escape from Long Kesh on 6 November 1974 after digging a tunnel. IRA member Hugh Coney was shot dead by a sentry, 29 other prisoners were captured within a few yards of the prison, and the remaining three were back in custody within 24 hours. In March 1975, ten prisoners escaped from the courthouse in Newry while on trial for attempting to escape from Long Kesh. The escapees included Larry Marley, who would later be one of the masterminds behind the 1983 escape. (Marley was shot dead by loyalists in 1987.) On 10 June 1981, eight IRA members on remand, including Angelo Fusco, Paul Magee and Joe Doherty, escaped from Crumlin Road Jail. The prisoners took prison officers hostage using three handguns that had been smuggled into the prison, took their uniforms and shot their way out of the prison.

On the 25 September 1983 38 Provisional IRA prisoners escaped from the HM Maze prison after taking control of their prison block and driving to freedom in a prison van. It was the biggest escape from a British prison in history.

Both Pearse & Nessan were awaiting trial on charges relating to a suspected IRA plot to assassinate a former brewery company chairman, Sir Charles Tidbury.

The escape happened at a period of heightend IRA activity in mainland Britain. In February 1991 the IRA had fired mortars at 10 Downing Street, home of the British Prime Minister and 11 days later bombed Victoria and Paddington stations in London resulting in one death and dozens of injuries.

Two pistols were smuggled into Brixton prison to the IRA volunteers. When a prison guard came to open their cell they threatened him with the gun, demanded his keys and tied him up. They scaled the prison walls and hijacked a car, wounding a motorist in the process and made it back to Ireland where they were caught in April 1993.In November 1996, he was released from Portlaoise Prison as part of the Irish government's early release programme for republican prisoners.