History.com: How 38 Ira Members Pulled Off the Uk's Biggest Prison Escape

During the height of Northern Ireland's "Troubles" in the 1970s and '80s, the British government incarcerated hundreds of Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) paramilitaries inside the notorious Maze Prison. Touted as Europe's most secure penitentiary, the Maze was thought to be escape-proof -- that is, until 38 IRA prisoners staged the biggest jailbreak in British history in September 1983.