Her Majesty’s Prison Maze (known colloquially as Maze Prison, The Maze, The H Blocks or Long Kesh) was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from mid-1971 to mid-2000. In 1983 – An organised highly disciplined group escaped. This is the story. It was situated in the former Royal Air Force station of Long Kesh, on the outskirts of Lisburn. This was in the townland of Maze, about nine miles (14 km) southwest of Belfast. The prison and its inmates played a prominent role in recent Irish history, notably in the 1981 hunger strike. The prison was closed in 2000 and demolition began on 30 October 2006, but (as of 2010) has been halted.
