Dixie Elliot recently met up with an old friend from the H-Blocks.

Sharon and I were delighted that my old friend and comrade Tommy Gorman and his lovely wife Anne paid us a visit.
 

Tommy was one of the Magnificent Seven who escaped from the Maidstone Prison Ship in January 1972.
 
Tommy and his comrades, Jim Bryson, Tommy Tolan, Thomas Kane, Martin Taylor, Peter Rodgers and Seán Convery had noticed a seal swimming through the ring of barbed wire which surrounded the ship.

The prisoners reckoned that if the gap was big enough for a seal to swim in through the barbed wire they could swim out through it. They began tossing tin cans overboard to monitor the movements of the tide as they planned their escape.


On the night of 16th January they covered themselves in butter to isolate themselves from the cold waters of Belfast lough and clambered down the ship's steel cable. 

Some of those men couldn't swim and the others helped them across the icy lough to freedom.

To get into a lough when you can't swim is incredible courage, as is the fact that those of the seven who could swim helped their comrades through the dark icy waters to the shore.

It took them 20 minutes to swim to the shore and freedom.

Tommy spent many more years going in and out of prison and was also on the Blanket protest.

Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman.
Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie


Magnificent

Dixie Elliot recently met up with an old friend from the H-Blocks.

Sharon and I were delighted that my old friend and comrade Tommy Gorman and his lovely wife Anne paid us a visit.
 

Tommy was one of the Magnificent Seven who escaped from the Maidstone Prison Ship in January 1972.
 
Tommy and his comrades, Jim Bryson, Tommy Tolan, Thomas Kane, Martin Taylor, Peter Rodgers and Seán Convery had noticed a seal swimming through the ring of barbed wire which surrounded the ship.

The prisoners reckoned that if the gap was big enough for a seal to swim in through the barbed wire they could swim out through it. They began tossing tin cans overboard to monitor the movements of the tide as they planned their escape.


On the night of 16th January they covered themselves in butter to isolate themselves from the cold waters of Belfast lough and clambered down the ship's steel cable. 

Some of those men couldn't swim and the others helped them across the icy lough to freedom.

To get into a lough when you can't swim is incredible courage, as is the fact that those of the seven who could swim helped their comrades through the dark icy waters to the shore.

It took them 20 minutes to swim to the shore and freedom.

Tommy spent many more years going in and out of prison and was also on the Blanket protest.

Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman.
Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie


1 comment:

  1. Great piece Dixie - one of the most read on the blog. Tommy is a great guy. Him and Anne have been great friends to me. You should think seriously about putting a book together with all these bits of history.

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