BELFAST, Northern Ireland — The last four inmates have left the Maze prison, which is due to be shut down as part of Northern Ireland's peace process.
"It's an end of an era, and I hope we never return to the same circumstances that we have had these last 30 years," Prison Officers' Association spokesman Finlay Spratt said Saturday.
"I don't think a lot of people will be sad to see the close of the Maze. It's been a blight on our life for many years, and it is good to see the end of it," Spratt said on British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
The last three Protestant "loyalist" prisoners were transferred to Maghaberry Prison west of Belfast, and the lone republican prisoner was moved to Magilligan jail in County Londonderry on Friday. Seven other prisoners were moved on Thursday.
The Good Friday agreement provided for early releases for prisoners affiliated with groups that declared cease-fires, including the Irish Republican Army on the Irish Catholic side and the Ulster Defense Association and Ulster Volunteer Force on the British Protestant side.
Built in 1976, the Maze had eight H-shaped blocks designed for a total of 800 prisoners. The prison is southwest of Belfast, near the Protestant village of Maze.
Almost from the day the Maze opened, IRA convicts refused to wear their new prison uniforms and smeared excrement on their cell walls, while on the outside the IRA assassinated prison officers. The campaign reached its climax in 1981, when 10 prisoners starved themselves to death.
Two years later, 38 IRA prisoners escaped, the biggest escape in British penal history.