HM Prison Maze

HM Prison Maze

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.

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.

Read more about HM Prison Maze:  Background, H-Blocks, Peace Process, Future

Famous quotes containing the words prison and/or maze:

    Thus I alone, where all my freedom grew,
    In prison pine with bondage and restraint;
    And with remembrance of the greater grief
    To banish the less, I find my chief relief.
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    Now fades the lasts long streak of snow,
    Now burgeons every maze of quick
    About the flowering squares, and thick
    By ashen roots the violets blow.
    Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)