Ned Maguire

Ned Maguire was an Irish Republican Army volunteer from Belfast,[1] perhaps best known for his part in the Crumlin Road Gaol breakout of 1943.

Having been sentenced to six years imprisonment,[1] Maguire was with the other IRA prisoners in 'A' Wing, when it was noticed that there was an unused trapdoor in the roof of a toilet block.[1] It was decided that Patrick Donnelly, Hugh McAteer (whose suggestion it had been),[2] Jimmy Steele, and Maguire would escape through this, with the aid of rope ladders fashioned from torn bed sheets and across the prison roof, followed by a second wave led by Joe Cahill.[1] The escape of the first party took place as planned on 15 January 1943.[3] Maguire was in the party because his trade hade been as a roof slater, and Donnelly believed this particular skill would be useful breaking out of the attic and onto the prison roof; it was, therefore, Maguire who removed the slates that enabled the group to get out.[4] Apart from Steele slightly injuring himself, the escape was successful, and Maguire and the others made their way to a North Queen Street safe-house in the staunchly Republican New Lodge district of Belfast. Splitting up, he and Donnelly made their way four days later to Dublin;[5] Maguire did not remain there long, however, as Belfast Brigade had received word of a major tunnelling operation by the Republican prisoners in Derry prison. In order to provide logistical support for such an important escape- which was timed for 21 May[6]- he made his way to Derry. Four months later, he was arrested by the Gardaí in Donegal.[7]