1981 Irish Hunger Strike

The 1981 Irish Hunger Strike was a campaign by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland for the British government to grant them political status. It was a seminal event in modern Irish history. It radicalised nationalist politics, and was the midwife to Sinn Féin as a serious political force, which ultimately led to it overtaking the SDLP as the main nationalist party in Northern Ireland.

Consequences

The Hunger Strike heralded an upsurge of violence after the comparatively quiet years of the late 1970s, with widespread civil disorder in Northern Ireland and serious unrest in the Republic, including rioting outside the British Embassy in Dublin. (Many may have either hoped for or feared a repeat of 1972, when after Bloody Sunday the embassy was burned out by protestors.) There was extensive international condemnation of Britain's handling of the hunger strikes. It resulted in a new surge of IRA activity, with the group obtaining many more members. It prompted the republican movement to move towards electoral politics - Sands' success combined with that of pro-Hunger Strike candidates in the six-county local elections and Dáil elections in the Republic gave birth to the armalite and ballot box strategy. As a direct consequence, Sinn Féin emerged as a serious political force in the 1982 elections to the Prior Assembly and the 1983 general election. Thereby, it indirectly paved the way for the Good Friday Agreement many years later.

Related Topics:
1970s - British Embassy - Dublin - 1972 - Bloody Sunday - Britain - Armalite and ballot box strategy - Sinn Féin - 1982 - Prior - 1983 general election - Good Friday Agreement

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The prisoners' case was summarised by the chorus of a song written at the time by Francis Brolly, now a Sinn Féin member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, which was played by a piper at the funeral of Bobby Sands:

Related Topics:
Francis Brolly - Sinn Féin - Northern Ireland Assembly

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"So I'll wear no convict's uniform, Nor meekly serve my time, That Britain might brand Ireland's fight, Eight hundred years of crime"

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