Sean Bourke

Sean Aloysius Bourke (1934–1982), from Limerick, aided in the prison escape of the British spy George Blake in October 1966. Blake had been convicted in 1961 of spying for the Soviet Union. After the escape, Blake eventually made his way to Moscow; Bourke did too, but eventually returned to Ireland. Bourke's co-conspirators were Michael Randle and Pat Pottle.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

Only Pottle and Randle were criminally charged for abetting the escape, and they were eventually found not guilty by a jury, based on their claims that they helped Blake escape because his 42-year sentence was "inhuman".[4] Bourke was never charged over the matter, for the Republic of Ireland refused to extradite him to the United Kingdom.[8]

  1. ^ O'Connor, Kevin (2003). Blake and Bourke and The End of Empires. London: Prendeville Publishing. ISBN 0-9535697-3-X.
  2. ^ Harrington, Illtyd (29 May 2003). "Forget the train robbers, this was the great escape". Camden New Journal. London. Archived from the original on 22 November 2010. Retrieved 2 August 2009. – while this article provides some useful details, several dates have been transcribed incorrectly
  3. ^ "Patrick Pottle (obituary)". The Daily Telegraph. London. 4 October 2000. Archived from the original on 26 December 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  4. ^ a b Norton-Taylor, Richard (3 October 2000). "Pat Pottle". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 8 November 2017. Retrieved 16 December 2016. insisted that their action was morally justified, and, ignoring a clear direction from the judge to convict, the jury unanimously acquitted them
  5. ^ Cohen, Nick (9 October 2000). "A jailbreak out of an Ealing comedy". New Statesman. London.
  6. ^ Michael Randle and Pat Pottle, The Blake Escape: How We Freed George Blake – and Why; ISBN 0-245-54781-9, 1989.
  7. ^ Fagan, Kieran (5 May 2003). "Escape of the century – or farce?". The Irish Times. Dublin. ISSN 0791-5144. Archived from the original on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2009.
  8. ^ Root, Neil (11 October 2011). Twentieth-Century Spies. Summersdale. ISBN 9780857653314. Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 31 December 2020.