3 February 1919: Eamon De Valera [above] escaped with two other prisoners from Lincoln Jail in England on this day. They did this with the aid of a master key and the assistance of Michael Collins on the outside directing operations. De Valera escaped from the jail along with Sean McGarry and Sean Milroy. A skeleton key had been fashioned from a copy that Dev had secured from the Prison Chaplain who had carelessly left down his set so that it was possible to make an imprint onto a lump of wax made from old alter candles. After many trials and errors a set of keys was fashioned, which were sent into the jail in the time honoured way concealed in a cake!

On the day appointed the three prisoners put their plan of escape into action and made their way through various locked internal doors until they reached the outer one. Here it had been arranged that Michael Collins would use his copy to open the door from the street outside.

But disaster struck as Collins broke his in the lock and the end stuck in the keyhole. He hoarsely whispered into the men behind the door what had happened. Beside him stood Harry Boland aghast at the turn of events. The situation was now very desperate as it could only be a matter of time before the alarm was raised and a point of no return had already been reached. But Dev displayed his customary coolness and pushed his own key into the hole and by good grave pushed out Collins broken nub and turned the key to Freedom. A quick embrace and a sigh of relief was all there was time for as the men made their way across the fields and into a waiting Taxi that got them away and back to Ireland.