Author James Durney examines how Crumlin Road Gaol provided the backdrop to three major breakouts during the Troubles in his latest book, Jailbreak Crumlin Road Gaol No building has symbolised Belfast’s dark history more than ‘the Crum’. Crumlin Gaol, a brooding Victorian structure built in 1846, and designed by renowned architect Sir Charles Lanyon. Modelled on London’s Pentonville Prison, was the first jail in Ireland to use the ‘silence and separation’ approach, where there was only one prisoner per cell and a rule of silence, when prisoners were hooded when outside their cells.
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