Jailbreak and Say Nothing: Albert Price and the Daring 1943 IRA Escape from Derry Jail

While watching the drama series Say Nothing on TV Albert Price the father of the Price

sisters, Dolours and Marian, mentioned that he had escaped from prison in the 1940s.

This immediately raised my interest as I had recently published Jailbreak. Great Irish republican escapes 1865-1983 (Merrion Press, 2024) and his name sounded familiar. I checked the list of escapees from Jailbreak which had Albert Price listed as one of twenty-one men who escaped from Derry Jail in 1943.

Another escapee listed was Paddy Adams, uncle of Gerry Adams, who is also featured in Say Nothing. After the series concluded I began reading Patrick Radden Keefe’s book Say Nothing. A true story of murder and memory in Northern Ireland (2018) on which the TV series is based and Albert Price was indeed an IRA escapee who went to England as a young bomber during the ‘S Plan’ bombing campaign of 1939-40.

Chapter 14 of my book Jailbreak details the daring escape from Derry Jail. Twenty men were picked to escape from Derry Jail and began digging a tunnel in October 1942; the selection was based on those who would commit to reporting back for IRA duty, north of the border. Among them were Albert Price, Séamus ‘Rocky’ Burns, and Paddy Adams.

On 21 March 1943 twenty-one men tunnelled out of the jail. Fifteen of them, including Albert Price, boarded a waiting lorry and were driven across the border to Donegal, only to be arrested by the Irish Army and held for a short time in the Curragh Camp before been released. Albert Price returned to Belfast and active service with the IRA.

Read his exploits and those of his fellow escapees in Jailbreak. Great Irish republican escapes 1865-1983.