Gerry Kelly speaking of his role in the IRA Maze escape, 1983

Transcript

00:00 Key to the success of the plan was taking over the control room,

00:05 which oversaw the block and communicated with the outside world.

00:09 The problem with the control room was that where he sat,

00:14 you had an intercom, there was a panic button,

00:17 there was a radio and there was a telephone.

00:21 So he had all of those which were within his reach.

00:26 So it was crucial that he didn't make a move.

00:29 And he was actually the person we were most worried about.

00:31 He was the person we did not want in the control room.

00:36 And the problem was there was a gate between me and him.

00:38 He said, "Don't ever move. Get on the ground.

00:45 This is an IRA operation. If you move, I'll shoot.

00:48 If you do what I tell, you won't be hurt."

00:51 He said, "If anybody phones here, you ask them what the problem is,

00:57 you then take 30 seconds and whatever the problem is,

00:59 you go back to them and say, 'Look, that's been sorted.'"

01:03 And he says, "Well, what if they don't believe me?"

01:05 And I says, "John, you make them believe you.

01:08 Your life depends on it."

01:10 But there was one room in the block that was a blind spot

01:14 to the men who hoped to escape from the maze that day.

01:18 We thought we had it settled when somebody came out of the ladies' toilets.

01:24 As this was happening, John Adams obviously seen his moment,

01:28 and he reached out and closed the opaque door.

01:32 As the other prison officer was being overpowered,

01:37 John Adams tried to raise the alarm.

01:39 Kelly fired two shots, one of which hit Adams above the eye.

01:44 He was unconscious for, I'd say, about 30 seconds.

01:49 And he woke up, and I had quite an extraordinary conversation with him

01:54 around saying something like, "What did you do that for?"

01:58 And he said, "I don't know. I don't know.

02:02 I'm sorry. I just don't know why I did it."

02:05 He says, "Can you get up?" And I says, "No, you can't."

02:08 And he says, "Now, you're bleeding. You're bleeding heavily.

02:11 I will get you some help, but don't move from where you are."