Demolishing a famous prison

last updated 8 January 2015

Antrim, U.K.

Northern Ireland’s Maze prison, which once housed terrorists from the province’s Catholic and Protestant militias, is being torn down. The prison has been empty since 2000, when most IRA and unionist prisoners were released as part of a peace accord. The 360-acre site will be home to a new sports center and shopping complex. Just a few buildings of the original structure will be preserved, including the hospital where 10 IRA hunger strikers starved themselves to death in 1981.