June 16, 2025
In 1919 an Irish prisoner attempted to escape by becoming an altar server for the prison church. He made a copy of the priest’s key using wax from a church candle. He then hid the design of the key in a letter sent to a locksmith friend on the outside, who made a copy of the key and sent it to the prisoner hidden inside a cake. The key didn’t work. Eventually a blank key and a file were sent in a different cake so that a master key could be made. This worked, and the prisoner escaped. That prisoner, Eamon de Valera, would become the first prime minister of Ireland.
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