The articles I've read don't give much details - probably for security reasons. How does any criminal get away with it, only to have their crime uncovered by "accident"? Apparently a dog walker stumbled upon one of his arms caches in Devon, and it all went from there.

Exemplary service record, plus where else is a killer going to hide, except amongst a bunch of trained killers?

The articles I read didn't explain what his role in the Royal Marines was. Did he work in the munitions or stores?

Also, worth noting, at no point has it been suggested that Maxwell intended to use the weapons and devices he acquired. His intent was to supply the Continuity IRA. Some of his devices were used, and some are thought to still be in circulation.

Three jihadist terrorists jailed this week for planning to bomb an airplane were found to have that old Provi favourite, a pipe bomb, amongst their arms cache. Maxwell made pipe bombs, some are thought to still be in circulation....

I have no use for the Continuity IRA, and this guy seems to have been unhinged after being beaten by loyalist thugs, hardly a rare occurrence for nationalists youths in the north.

that said, its not really news, the IRA has used the British army as their basic training method for decades. Tom Barry, the most successful guerilla leader in the 1919 to 1921war learned his craft in the British Army during WWI. Sean Garland was in the paras before the 1950's border campaign. No doubt the provos, not the silly little imitation IRAs, have a few in the British forces now.

Revolutionary zeal is all well and good, but its not a substitute for professional military training.

I'm not convinced revenge is his motive. After all, these so called dissident paramilitary groups seem more concerned with murdering Catholic collaborators than any thing else. I've long held the view that the likes of Continuity IRA and "Real" IRA are simply the criminal funding branch of the Provis, and since Good Friday they have found they don't want to give up the lifestyle. Maxwell was growing cannabis to fund his activities.

Bobby Sands and the Maze Prison hunger strikers would be turning in their graves!

What happens in most places if the authorities take away bonfire material? No bonfire.

What happens in nationalist Belfast when the authorities take away bonfire material because no permission has been given to have a bonfire? The little shits throw their toys out of their prams and go around setting fire to cars instead. Just another weekend in the province!

I wonder how many of the burnt cars probably belonged to members of their own community?

The disturbances took place in the Markets area of Belfast.

As you are well aware, this happened in nationalist areas. it was strongly condemned by both Sinn Fein and the SDLP(for what that's worth).

I predicted a while ago it might be a rough summer in the north. While I don't excuse it, its understandable that nationalist youths wonder why their materials are confiscated after the Orangemen were allowed to almost burn half of Belfast down.

we have our own traditions, I don't like the whole idea of aping the orange men with bonfires.

Apprentice boys parade in Derry went off with out a hitch, a little suprising, Derry being a much stronger dissident stronghold than Belfast.

and the gay parade went off in Belfast. A number of PSNI constables joined by Gardaí from the south paraded in uniform. Well received by most, the Orange order all up in flames, not at all happy that the men and women protecting them form the celtic horde from the south are not all that they should biblically be.

Ireland at the moment seems more interested in what happens on the border after Brexit, than whether the island is to be green, orange, red, white and blue, or rainbow coloured for that matter.

Still, political leadership doesn't necessarily reflect the opinions of the people that voted for it. I'm sure there are plenty of racists, homophobes and other assorted bigots amongst Ulsters nationalist leaning population, but they're never going to support the DUP, even if Irelands president is gay, and brown.

Saw the trailer for the new film on the IRA's 1983 escape from the H blocks. It was a huge propaganda victory for the IRA, and an equally huge embarrassment for the Thatcher government. The Maze was supposed to be the most secure prison in Europe, 38 provos escaped in a commandered van. It remains the greatest mass prison break in British history

How many were recaptured?

about half were recaptured fairly quickly. The escapees had coordinated with the IRA on the outside, there were supposed to be cars waiting to take the prisoners across the border as quickly as possible. someone fucked up the timing, the transportation wasn't there and everybody had to head south on foot.

Anyone who made it was given a choice of returning to active service, or getting setting up in the U.S. with a new identity and a job.

Oh, well, at least none of them were executed like fifty of the 76 mostly British prisoners that escaped from the Sagan POW camp in Poland in 1943.

there was a near miss on another mass escape from the Maze in 1997. The IRA had an elaborate tunnel complete with electric lights under construction, it was within a hundred yards of the perimeter when it was discovered.

that was a bit of a wasted effort at that stage though, most everyone involved was released shortly after anyway under the good Friday accords.

You obviously missed the part about 76 mostly British prisoners escaping. 76 is exactly twice the number 38.

That was big news all over the world. I was working in some shithole part of Arkansas at the time and it even made the TV news and the newspapers there.

An impressive feat, but breaking out of a pow camp is a bit easier than a maximum security prison. And the Maze was located inside a British miltary base.

Although the numbers were much smaller, the most spectacular escape the IRA pulled off was landing a hijacked helicopter in the yard of Mount joy jail in Dublin, scooping up 3 high ranking provos and getting clean away. A story told for years, probably fiction, is that one of the screws asked if it was the new minister of defence arriving, to which one the provos remaining replied, nah, that would be our minister of defence departing.

A bunch of whiney paddies breaking in to a liberal democracy? Must have been really fucking scary for them!

Liberal democracy? I'll allow its getting better, but nothing remotely resembling a liberal democracy existed in Northern Ireland at the time. The only fully armed police in the UK, internment without trial, special criminal courts, the SAS deployed inside UK with kill no capture orders, all the hall marks of a liberal democracy

If Britain had run the north as a liberal democracy. We would not even be having this discussion. The troubles would not have happened, and a few thousand people, British and Irish would still be alive

Perhaps the Emerald Isle should have taken its cue from the rest of the British Isles and been good, loyal subjects?

The Irish like a good fight, that's the way it is. ;)

Yes, well, shopping centres, horses and statues don't fight back. Should have joined a proper army like the loyal Scots, instead of terrorising a population it claimed to defend.

Latest from the Brexit negotiations:

The EU is determined that it won't discuss a trade deal until they are satisfied with the UK position on how much we are going to give them to leave, what happens to EU citizens in the UK after we leave, and what happens to what they are calling the land border between the EU and the UK. In other words, the Ulster/Eire border.

The UK position on this is that it should be open and frictionless, in order to maintain free trade between the north and south. The EU wants border controls so that they can control migration in to the European Union. Which is fucking laughable considering the situation on its southern shores, with hundreds of thousands crossing and mass drownings a common occurrence. Never mind the fact that the EU seems to tolerate so called aid agencies that are working with human traffickers to help these crossings!

It would be easier all around if the Republic left the European Union, we could have a fairly happy gig.

That's odd. I thought the migration of refugees was going the other way, that is out of Europe and into the UK?

Which is what makes the EU position so puzzling. There isn't currently a huge flow of migration from the United Kingdom to Europe, except some increase of Europeans going home. I don't see how this is suddenly going to change if the EU imposes a land border. Migrants don't come here to get in to the Schengen area.

As for the other way, there has been concentrations of migrants in places like Calais on and off for nearly two decades. Basically what has happened is that EU laws on supposed refugees have been ignored (the Dublin accord). Refugees are supposed to be processed at the place of arrival in the EU. Instead they have been funnelled either towards Northern France where they are not wanted, or Germany where they have until now, been welcomed. The consequence of this is that the EU is now threatening to fine certain countries that are refusing to take an allocated amount of this influx.

Ireland and the United Kingdom could probably easily work out a border deal, but for the EU, which wants to impose its rules on the situation rather than take a common sense approach which would foster peace and security, and encourage trade.

Which to me would be to send most of the refugees back home. Fuck that sending them one a week by plane. Just cram ships with hundreds of them and drop them back home.

Read today a 75 year old former British soldier will be tried for the shooting of an unarmed man in 1974. The victim, who was developmentally disabled, panicked at the sight of an army patrol and ran, and refused to heed orders to stop. On one hand shooting an unarmed civilian in the back who was running in the opposite direction would seem to merit criminal charges, if you consider 1974 in the north, it was plausible that the man was running as the patrol was about to walk into an IRA ambush.

But beyond all that, the man is 75 years old, and his crime, if it was one,happened over forty years ago. even as a republican, I say let it go....

A former IRA car bomber and a former UVF man convicted of murdering two Catholic men are now sitting on Belfast City Council. They have recently given their approval for the redevelopment of the Crumlin Road Courthouse where they were both convicted for their crimes.

If these two can work together and put the past on the past, why can't Sinn Fein and the DUP?

The IRA chap is Sinn Feins leader on Belfast City Council, the article I read didn't give the other blokes political affiliation, I'd imagine it to be Loyalist though. I'd imagine that 20 years ago they would quite gladly have killed each other. Perhaps this lends a different perspective than that available to the likes of the current crop of professional politician trying to steer their way through Brexit and power sharing?

Not being able to post a link to the story, the individuals are Billy Hutchinson and Jim McVeigh.

Maybe a few years in prison gives one a new perspective. It's said that Gusty Spence, one of the most infamous loyalist paramilitaries actually learned to speak Irish while he was in.

Hutchison and McVeigh are legends within their respective communites. Hutchinson was Gusty Spences orotege. McVeigh ran all republican prisoners in the Maze until it closed.

It was interesting to watch them both visiting the court. Thankfully they stopped short of pretending to do some actual work.

There is a new movie about an escape from the Maze prison. Anyone here seen it yet?

Is it made by Americans?

I hope not, or history will be rewritten.