Éamon de Valera was possibly the most famous and influential Irish statesman of modern times. The evening of 3 February 1919, Éamon, along with two other Irish rebels, dramatically escaped from Lincoln Prison. But why were they inside and how did they get out?
When the First World War started many Irish nationalists thought Britain’s misfortune could be exploited to help Ireland gain independence. During the Easter week of 1916 they organised an uprising in Dublin yet it was poorly supported and soon put down.
In the wake of the uprising, the British authorities, annoyed at what they saw as a treacherous stab in the back, foolishly decided to execute the leaders. Realising popular feeling in Ireland was turning against them, the British stopped the executions, leaving Éamon de Valera the most senior surviving republican.
In the final year of the war, the British tried to discredit the Irish republicans by falsely claiming they had been plotting with the Germans. On the 17th of May 1918, Éamon de Valera and about 70 other Irish nationalists were arrested: half were sent to HM Prison Usk in Monmouthshire, Wales, while Éamon and the rest were sent to HM Prison Lincoln. However the head of the Irish nationalist intelligence network, Michael Collins, escaped capture and was soon planning to get the Irish leaders out.
De Valera noticed a door in the exercise yard at the back of the prison that lead to the outside; if he could get a key he could escape. De Valera was a pious Catholic and served as the altar server in the prison’s chapel, allowing him to make an impression of the Chaplain’s key using some wax in a tobacco tin.
Drawings were made of the key and smuggled to Irish supporters outside the prison who made a replica key, baked it into a cake and delivered it to the prisoners. The authorities incredibly never noticed and allowed the cake to be given to the prisoners. However, the key didn’t work and it took three more cakes with blank keys and files baked inside before the prisoners got a working key.
On the rather misty evening of the 3rd of February 1919 Éamon de Valera and two colleagues (Seàn McGarry and Seàn Milroy) used the key to escape the prison. Outside were a few helpers, including Michael Collins. They made their way across the allotments at the back of the prison towards Wragby Road.
Lincoln Christ Hospital School was a military hospital at the time and the prisoners had to bluff their way past some convalescing soldiers who were courting with some of the nurses outside the hospital.
The escapees hurried down Wragby Road to the Adam and Eve pub where a taxi driver was waiting (unaware of who his passengers were). They were driven to Worksop where another helper had a taxi booked to take them to Sheffield, and ultimately to a safe house in Manchester.
After the escape was discovered, the Irish nationalists told a variety of stories to the press as to how they had escaped: partly to cover their tracks and partly to make the British look foolish. Some of this propaganda was believed and many untrue stories spread about the escape. Even quite recently it has been incorrectly reported that the prisoners were dressed as women to escape!
While they had been in prison, the Irish prisoners discovered that a conscientious objector, who had been protesting against the First World War, was in solitary confinement in Lincoln Prison: Fenner Brockway. They smuggled in newspapers for him and managed to get a letter out to his wife. On the night of the escape, Brockway celebrated in his cell that somebody had got one up on the authorities.
Even with de Valera out, the path to Irish independence was not a smooth one. Michael Collins was killed in the civil war that followed Ireland’s 1921 Treaty with Britain that offered self-rule (but not full independence). Gradually, the Irish Free State became the Irish Republic and de Valera became a very important politician. He served as the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland (1932-48, 1951-54 and 1957-59) and the Uachtarán na hÉireann (President) of Ireland (1959-73).
In 1950, during a period out of office, he went on a speaking tour of Britain. He visited Lincoln in the company of Fenner Brockway (who was now a British MP). The pair revisited Lincoln Prison and were shown the cells where they had been held. It seems the past had been forgiven and de Valera was welcomed by the city he had so successfully escaped!
When you walk down Wragby Road, remember that more than one hundred years ago some of the most wanted rebels in Britain were secretly hurrying down the same street. If the escape had not been successful, perhaps Irish (and British) history would have been very different.
To find out more, you can download a PDF map of the escape here - and even follow in Éamon de Valera’s footsteps.
Article by historian Dr Erik Grigg.