Bolt cutter handles, Kilmainham Jail escape, 1921

Bolt cutter handles, Kilmainham Jail escape, 1921

These handles are from a pair of bolt cutters which were used to assist in the escape of prisoners from Kilmainham Jail, 14 February 1921. They were used to cut the padlock locking a gate during the escape of Simon Donnelly, Frank Teeling and Ernest O'Malley on 14^th February 1921.
The bolt-cutter was smuggled out of Dublin Dockyards and the blades brought into the prison by British soldiers Privates Roper and Holland, as the handles had to be sawn off to make them easier to smuggle into the jail. New handles were made inside the jail to use the cutters to break the lock.
Paddy Moran of the 2^nd Battalion Dublin Brigade was offered this escape route, but refused as he was sure he would be acquitted. He was subsequently hanged along with Thomas Whelan, Frank Flood, Thomas Bryan, Pat Doyle and Bernard Ryan – The Mountjoy Ten - on 14^th March 1921.