Go: Hugh Coney and the Escape from Long Kesh on November 6, 1974
About three weeks after the Battle of Long Kesh, a mass escape from Cage 5 took place. 3 managed to escape, Volunteer Hugh Coney was shot dead, 33 other prisoners were recaptured within a very short time (Doherty 2014; O'Rourke 2014; Whelan 2014).
Which stratagem did the Irish Republicans use?
Number 5: “Looting a burning house”. This involves exploiting an existing chaos for personal gain (Senger 1993: 67-74).
After the Battle of Long Kesh, the entire prison camp was in shambles. Under these circumstances, a successful escape was the most natural thing to do in order to achieve a propaganda victory against the oppressors. The infrastructure was damaged, the personnel overstretched and the British army busy re-establishing control. The Republicans took advantage of this to plan their escape (Whelan 2014).
The first group of escapees accidentally ran into a British patrol, making the mass escape impossible.
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Volunteer Hugh Coney was allegedly shot dead without warning (Doherty 2014; O'Rourke 2014; Whelan 2014). But even that was a thing the Republicans could use for their cause. After all, if there were no positive headlines about a successful mass escape, with Coney they had at least a martyr who had been shot by the British murderers from ambush, which promised commemorations, general outrage and heaps of donations (Whelan 2014).
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