The 1973 Mountjoy helicopter breakout provided the IRA with a huge propaganda coup.
For the first time the inside story of how the spectacular jailbreak was carried out has been revealed by the man who organised it.
In a new book Brendan Hughes, who is originally from Ardboe in Co Tyrone, reveals how three leading IRA figures broke out using a hijacked chopper.
The escape of former IRA chief of staff Seamus Twomey, Tyrone man Kevin Mallon and JB O'Hagan from north Armagh, caused a country-wide sensation and considerable embarrassment to the Dublin government.
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The escape was immortalised by the Wolf Tones in 'The Helicopter Song', which topped the Irish music charts.
Now Mr Hughes, along with journalist Douglas Dalby, provides a detailed account of the planning that went into the operation.
A former 'Officer Commanding' in east Tyrone, Mr Hughes was one of the IRA's most trusted members in the 1970s.
He was later Director of Intelligence at General Headquarters and ran a secret IRA unit.
Originally a member of the Official IRA, he switched allegiance to the fledgling Provisional movement on the day internment was introduced, August 9, 1971.
Later that evening the Provos carried out what is believed to be their first armed attack on British soldiers in east Tyrone.
A squaddie was lucky to escape when a round from Thompson sub machine gun struck a rubber bullet he was carrying in his pocket during rioting in Coalisland.
Weeks later, on September 14, 1971, British soldier John Rudman was shot dead by the same Provo unit at nearby Edendork - the first British army fatality inflicted by the organisation in east Tyrone.
'Up Like a Bird - the rise and fall of an IRA commander', charts Mr Hughes's time at the top of the IRA and his fall from favour after he carried out several robberies for personal gain in the mid 70s.
As well as organising one of the most spectacular jailbreaks in Irish history, the IRA team run by Mr Hughes was also responsible for carrying out a series of fundraising robberies across the south.
In the book he reveals how many of those involved in helping to organise the escape had Tyrone connections.
Within weeks of the escape he was arrested and subsequently convicted of IRA membership.
Sent to Portlaoise Prison, in Co Laois, he helped organise another jail break, with the help of other east Tyrone, south Armagh and local IRA men, and was later one of 19 republicans to escape.
He returned to the ranks of the IRA, and while not directly involved, was in charge of the unit that stole £147,000 from Chase Bank of Ireland International at Shannon Airport - at the time the biggest heist ever carried out in Ireland.
Mr Hughes reveals in the book how after years of operations he decided to take time out with his family.
After being offered just £300 to take his family away by a senior IRA man, he carried out a robbery for personal gain netting more than £130,000.
And while he says the IRA ended up with £60,000 of the haul he was placed under sentence of death for breaking strict rules on carrying out robberies for personal benefit.
In the book he reveals how the Provos even sent a hit-squad to America to track him down and how he ran into to one of those sent to kill him years later.
He writes: "You were lucky that you never found me,’ I told him.
"You would have been staring down the barrel of a .44 Magnum and gone home in a box.’
"He agreed that he had been extremely fortunate.
"I often wonder how hard he actually looked."
In 1976 he was convicted for his part in several armed robberies and returned to Portlaoise where he served his sentence on a 'Mavericks' landing before release in 1991.
He recounts how two years later he took part in an armed robbery he said was organised by former INLA chief Dominic McGlinchey and after being caught received an eight-year sentence.
Released in 1999 under the Good Friday Agreement he returned to every-day life.
Now aged 74, he hopes no young person ever follows in his footsteps.
"Education and politics are where it’s at now," he writes.
Up like a bird includes a series of rare photographs taken by P Michael O'Sullivan in the 1970s.
The former US soldier was embedded with the East Tyrone Brigade for a period and accompanied the IRA on several operations.
The banned photographs, which were published in the1972 book 'Patriot Graves, Resistance in Ireland', were captioned as including images of Mr Hughes and other well known republicans from the time.
'Up Like a Bird - the rise and fall of an IRA commander' by Brendan Hughes, with Douglas Dalby, is published by Time Warp Books and is available from www.uplikeabird.com and bookshops.
