Armed only with a pot of pink chrysanthemums and a walkie-talkie, a Limerick convict sprang the UK's most-wanted KGB spy in a daring prison escape that would go down in British penal history.

The tale of how Seán Bourke helped double agent George Blake outwit his jailers is just one in a new series of stories of Irishmen who made breaks for freedom.

There was Francie McGuigan -- hooded, beaten, subjected to sleep deprivation and thrown out of a helicopter -- who later coolly escaped through the main gates of Long Kesh dressed as a priest.

Then, there was Charlie 'Nomad' McGuinness, who helped execute a high-wire escape across the walls of Derry jail before scattering cayenne pepper to throw the bloodhounds off the scent.

And there was George Gilmore, who waded to freedom through sewage, and 38 IRA prisoners in Long Kesh who used soup ladles to tunnel, Colditz-style, more than 40 metres to freedom.

"The Irish are great at two things -- funerals and prison breaks. We have a long history of prison breaks, especially among Republican prisoners," says Paddy Hayes, director of 'Éalú', a six-part series on notorious Irish prison escapes which begins on TG4 on Thursday.

"Some of them were reckless. Some of them had no fear for their own safety while others were opportunists. The guile these men used and the painstaking research they went into for some of these escapes was extraordinary," Paddy says.

The series begins against the backdrop of 1960s Cold War paranoia when Limerick man Seán Bourke made international headlines by masterminding the escape of George Blake, a British spy who worked as a KGB double agent.

In 1961, George was sentenced to 42 years in prison, the longest sentence ever handed down by a British court.

Seán later explained how it all started: "Britain's most-wanted man came up to me in D wing and said: 'Seán, will you help me escape?'"

At the time, Seán was serving a seven-year sentence for sending a letter bomb to a policeman, on which he engraved the words 'Rest in Peace'.

On his release, Seán spent six months making detailed preparations. Using smuggled walkie-talkies, he communicated covertly with George on a nightly basis, and even recorded their conversations, which feature in the programme.

He also enlisted the help of another former inmate, Michael Randle, who later described Seán as a "total maverick".

In October 1966, against all the odds, he sprang his pal from Wormwood Scrubs. The prison is beside Hammersmith Hospital in London.

"Seán's plan was to park the getaway car outside the wall of the prison, and if he was challenged he'd hold up the pink chrysanthemums saying he was visiting a relative in the hospital -- that was his cover," says Paddy.

Seán hid the walkie-talkie microphone in the chrysanthemums so he wouldn't appear to be acting suspiciously when he communicated with George.

Following the escape, which made international headlines, an ITN reporter at the scene wondered about the pot of chrysanthemums at the foot of the prison wall.

It remained a mystery until 1970, when Seán published his account of the adventure.

Following the escape, seaports and airports were scoured by the police, while the pair holed up together in a bedsit half a mile from the prison.

"What ensued were weeks of chaos where Seán's erratic and drunken behaviour threatened to blow their cover," says Paddy.

The conspirators finally managed to smuggle George to Russia -- in a camper van. He still lives there today, aged 89. Seán died on January 26, 1982.

The ordeal suffered by IRA man Francie McGuigan makes for compelling viewing. In 1971, Francie, then just 23, was taken from his home during a British army swoop and imprisoned for seven days at Girdwood Barracks in Belfast.

There, says Paddy, he became one of the 'Hooded Men' -- he was hooded, beaten and subjected to psychological torture including white noise, sleep deprivation and being thrown out of a helicopter.

Francie was sent to Long Kesh Internment Camp, where on being asked by the governor if he had any questions, he cheekily asked: What's the best way out of here?"

The governor replied coldly that "the only way out is through the front gate". Later, after his escape, Francie sent him a postcard thanking him for his advice.

Breaking out was more complicated for Laois man Paddy Fleming, who escaped more than 17 times from straitjackets in Portlaoise prison in 1918.

A member of the IRA's Kilkenny Brigade, Paddy was sentenced to five years in Maryborough Prison, now Portlaoise Prison, for attempting to purchase arms from British soldiers in 1917.

Paddy's demand for political status -- which would allow him visiting rights, the right to wear his own clothes and mingle with other political prisoners -- was refused.

Then, one night he kicked his chamber pot at the window. "Shards of glass fell into the cell. He hid pieces of glass and, holding a shard in his mouth, he cut his way out of the strait-jacket."

Paddy Fleming held out until the authorities granted him political status and transferred him to Mountjoy in 1919.

But on March 29, 1919, he led a cunning prison break right under the noses of the warders.

Using a fake fist-fight among the prisoners as a decoy, Paddy and 19 of his comrades managed to scale Mountjoy's outer wall and escaped.

It was the biggest jailbreak in Ireland's history at the time.

When it comes to prison escapes, however, Frank Carty was one of the most colourful. He made two breakouts, culminating in a high-wire act across the walls of Derry Jail in 1920.

Frank's superior in the Sligo Brigade of the IRA, Billy Pilkington, decided to spring him.

A very devout man, Billy sought divine inspiration while drawing up the escape plans and after a decade of the rosary and a blessing from a nun, he and his brigade set off.

They cut telegraph wires and erected barricades. At night, they scaled the walls of Sligo Jail, overpowered the sentry, held up the governor in his bed and took his keys.

Armed with two guns, they took over the entire prison before smashing down the front door and departing through the prison gates.

Frank was soon re-arrested and charged with the murder of an RIC inspector, and the authorities sent him to the high-security Derry Jail.

Here he languished once again until Charlie 'Nomad' McGuinness stepped in.

A smuggler, spy and a soldier of fortune, Nomad hatched a plan which involved a tightrope walk from Frank's cell window to the outer jail walls.

Once he got Frank over the wall, Nomad scattered cayenne pepper in their wake to throw the bloodhounds off the scent.

Finally, there were the 38 IRA prisoners who, in 1974, tunnelled over 40 metres to freedom outside the perimeter fence of Long Kesh.

It had been a meticulously planned escape -- in the best Colditz tradition, the mouth of the tunnel was hidden under pieces of corrugated iron and the internees held sing-songs every night to conceal the sound of their digging.

The painstaking work was done over the course of three weeks using soup ladles and metal trays, and pieces of wood were used to shore up the roof of the tunnel.

On November 6, 1974, the prisoners made a break for it. One by one they crawled on their stomachs into the tunnel, through the underwater section, to freedom.

In all, 38 prisoners escaped, but one escapee drew the attention of the armed sentries, and in the ensuing chaos one man, Hugh Coney, was shot dead and more than 30 prisoners were captured.

The six prisoners who managed to get away were re-captured within 48 hours.

'Éalú' begins on Thursday at 10.30pm on TG4 with 'Bourke & Blake'

- Ailin Quinlan

Originally published in