Steele and McAteers’ Daring Escape

This is ‘Steele and McAteers Daring Escape from the Crumlin Road Jail’ as recorded by The Men of No Property in 1976.

This was released on the LP, ‘Ireland – The Fight Goes On’ on Resistance records (RES 1003 LP). The sleeve notes have this to say about the song:

Steele and McAteer’s Daring Escape From The Crumlin Road Jail (Traditional)
- Although it is really traditional, McIlvogue claims it and Whoriskey sings it the escape happened during breakfast at Crumlin Jail Belfast on 15th January 1943. Hugh McAteer, doing 15 years for “treason”, Jimmy Steele, Pat Donnelly, the O/C of Crumlin at the time and Ned Maguire, a slater, forced their way through the roof, dropped 40 feet using sheets, climbed the 20 foot outer wall using an improvised grappling hook and made their escape, despite McAteer injuring his right leg. £3.000 a man was the reward put on their heads but no one informed and that Easter Steele and McAteer appeared to an astonished and delighted audience of film goers at The Broardway Cinema, Falls Roads when the IRA took it over for an Easter commemoration.

As far as it being traditional, the lyrics may have actually been written by Jimmy Steele. Steele edited (and wrote most of) the Belfast edition of Republican News after his escape. A poem about the escape is known to have been included in the March 1943 issue (although I’ve never got my hands on a copy). He regularly included his own poetry and songs in periodicals he published.

The lyrics were also printed in an undated copy of the Rushlight magazine (from some time in the late 1970s or early 1980s). In Rushlight they are laid out as three verses instead of the six that are sung in The Men of No Property’s version. They have slowed the tempo of song down in their recording, but it should be closer to that of Six Miles From Bangor to Donaghadee (as it was sung by Richard Hayward) which uses the same melody. The verses, as printed by Rushlight, fit this version better. This would also give it a more intentionally comedic and light-hearted air than the slower, more severe version recorded by The Men of No Property.