The Maze Prison Riots 1974

Maze Riot 1

On 15 October 1974 Republican prisoners serving sentences in the Maze prison rioted.

The battalion was mobilised to deal with it, with tactical headquarters and two companies flying directly to the Maze from Ballykinler, while ‘D’ Company came by road from Aughnacloy in Saracen armoured personal carriers.

This was not a spontaneous outbreak of violence by the inmates but a planned event, designed to coincide with other disturbances in Northern Ireland.

The prisoners were well prepared for their action, they had erected barricades, stockpiled bricks and hunks of concrete, made various weapons such as poles with six inch nails embedded in their ends, improvised maces and pieces of beds with their ends made as jagged as possible. They even had respirators.

A private soldier remembered 'I can’t remember the exact time we went in but it was light. The company entered the Maze and we went into what looked like a sports field.

It was a single gate and as we got in we panned out into what could only be described as an extended line. I was a baton gunner as were many others.

To say it was a turkey shoot is no exaggeration. ‘C’ Company were under extreme pressure and several soldiers were separated with their lives in immediate danger. ‘C’ company came under severe pressure until the timely intervention of a Squadron from 3 RTR (Royal Tank Regiment).

Throughout the operation the troops on the ground were assisted by helicopters dropping CS gas on the rioters and in one instance on ‘D’ company.

Eventually two Saracens pushed a hole through the wire fences and the whole force which by now had risen to seven companies, charged through the gaps in the fence and cornered the prisoners up against the wire at the edge of the football pitch.

The battle was over. Many soldiers from the battalion sustained minor injuries with thirteen going to Musgrove Hospital in Belfast for treatment.

The inmates at the Maze were experienced men and as such operated under their own command structure inside the prison system. Prior to the disturbances the republican prisoners had a local truce with the loyalist prisoners enabling them to use some of their cell accommodation as a field hospital.

After the battle was over the prisoners (there were over 400 of them) were lined up against the wire at the edge of the football pitch, and during the day were taken back to the various compounds.

By 1800 hours that evening the battalion had left the prison with the prisoners, now well and truly subdued, preparing to spend a cold night without shelter.

And so ended one of the regiment’s most violent episodes to date. [The estimated cost of damage to the Maze Prison, during disturbances on 15 October 1974, was put at £1.5m.]