Up Like A Bird

Brendan Hughes’ gritty memoir charts his meteoric rise through the ranks of the Provisional IRA in the early 1970s as it transformed into one of the most sophisticated guerrilla movements in the world.

With all the ingredients of a fast-paced thriller, Hughes reveals how a secret IRA unit planned and executed the celebrated helicopter escape from Mountjoy Jail in 1973 and carried out a series of audacious fundraising bank raids in the Republic. For the first time, he also tells the inside story of how the IRA planned its mass breakout from Portlaoise Prison in 1974.

After his relationship with the IRA leadership turned sour, the organisation set out to execute him.

For almost half a century he has been written out of modern Irish republican history.

Until now.