HM Prison Maze

The Maze Prison (official name: Her Majesty's Prison Maze ), also known as Long Kesh or H- block, was from 1971 to 2000, a high- security prison near Lisburn in Northern Ireland.

Formation

To be at the beginning of the 1970s are the Lord escalating unrest in Northern Ireland, the British government resorted to controversial methods such as Masseninternierungen ( internment without trial). Those arrested were initially detained in barracks on the disused airfield at Long Kesh Lisburn. This camp was burned down by the approximately 800 Republican inmates on October 15, 1974 in the evening on fire and almost completely destroyed. They had colluded with the loyalist prisoners. The republican prisoners gathered at the sports ground of the army base, which was surrounded by thousands of soldiers. On the following day at eleven clock they were bombed from helicopters with tear gas, the Duke of Edinburgh Regiment stormed the facility.

Later it was a regular prison, named after the nearby town of Maze. From the makeshift accommodations highly secure prison buildings which were called because of their H-form H-Blocks were.

Occupants

In the Maze Prison were members of terrorist groups from their prison sentences, both members of Protestant organizations such as the UDA as well as Irish Catholic as the Provisional IRA and INLA of. Inmates were later housed at his own request after confessions separately with both sides then organized their prison life taut and quasi- military. Especially republican underground organizations insisted that their members detained there no criminals in prison were, but had the status of prisoners of war.

This was the Maze Prison for special focus of the political developments in Northern Ireland; here are given only a few significant events:

This agreement was a turning point for the Maze Prison. Members of banned organizations, which were involved in the conclusion of the contract and joined the ceasefire, thereby received entitlement to early release from prison. Then emptied the prison, it was closed on 29 September 2000.