Around 800 republicans are due to hold a party in Co Donegal tonight to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the IRA mass break-out from the Maze Prison.
Prison officer James Ferris died of a heart attack after being stabbed while trying to stop 38 IRA men escaping from Northern Ireland's most notorious jail on September 25th, 1983.
Sixteen of those who broke out were charged with the murder but acquitted after the trial failed to prove the stabbing caused the fatal heart attack. The State Pathologist told the trial the wound would not have killed a healthy man.
Up to 800 republicans and their families will join prominent Sinn Féin members at the knees-up at the Holiday Inn in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
A number of those who escaped are still officially on the run and wanted in Northern Ireland. Unionist politicians have called for gardaí to monitor the event and arrest any fugitives who turn up.
According to an advertisement in the republican weekly newspaper An Phoblacht, the "true story" of the escape will be told by, among others, Mr Gerry Kelly and former IRA chief in the Maze Mr Brendon "Bic" McFarlane, who were among the escapees.
Mr Kelly was jailed for life in 1973 for his role the Old Bailey and Scotland Yard bombings. He was eventually captured in The Netherlands after his escape from the Maze.
He later went on to become the Sinn Féin representative for north Belfast in the now suspended Stormont Assembly.