Inside the notorious Maze where the most dangerous IRA and loyalist prisoners were held during the Troubles
It was infamous for H-blocks, hunger strikes, daring escapes and brutal sectarian killings
IT used to be 'home' to some of Northern Ireland most deadly terrorists hitting the headlines for the hungers strikes and dirty protests which turned it into a powder keg political prison in the 1980s.
Now these amazing photos show how Maze Prison lies empty. It's infamous H-Blocks now deathly quiet with only a few signs of its bloody and brutal past.
When the Good Friday Agreement was signed in April 1998, it spelled the end for a sectarian jail that had become notorious throughout the world.
The controversial deal saw the release of 80 of Ulster's most notorious terrorists were and signalled the closure of the Maze.
Its grim H-shaped cell blocks became a familiar image associated with the The Troubles.
Early in its history, the Maze was given the nickname of "the university of terror" and it was well-earned. One republican former prisoner recalled: "We went in bad terrorists and came out good terrorists.
"We learned how to strip and handle weapons, how to make boobytrap bombs, how to stand up to interrogation and, basically, how to be a professional terrorist."
Electricians taught others how to make the circuit boards necessary to trigger bombs.
At its height, the Maze held 1,800 men.
We went in bad terrorists and came out good terrorists
Former IRA prisoner
All those who passed through the gates considered themselves prisoners of war, despite convictions for bombing women and children or shooting people whose only "crime" was to belong to a different religion.
Inmates protested against prison rules and demanded the right not to wear prison uniforms.
Hunger strikes were staged in the early Eighties. Bobby Sands was the first of 10 republican prisoners to starve themselves to death.
In 1983, 38 IRA men escaped in the United Kingdom's biggest mass jail break. Some have never been recaptured.
