Hunger strike

A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest or to achieve a goal such as a policy change.

Irish republicans

Bobby Sands was the first of ten Irish republican paramilitary prisoners to die during a hunger strike in 1981. This hunger strike was a protest against the revocation by the British government of a prisoner-of-war-like Special Category Status for paramilitary prisoners in Northern Ireland. There was widespread support for the hunger strikers from Irish republicans and the broader nationalist community on both sides of the Irish border. Some of the hunger strikers were elected to both the Irish and British parliaments by an electorate who wished to register their disgust at the intransigent attitude of the British government. The men survived without food for ten weeks on average, taking only water and salt. After the deaths of the men and following severe public disorder, the British government granted politically motivated prisoners Special Category Status. The hunger strikes gave a huge propaganda boost to a severely demoralised IRA. The tactic was not new, having been used by republicans from 1917 and subsequently during the Anglo-Irish War in the 1920's, most famously by the Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney, who died on hunger strike in Brixton prison in 1921. Earlier hunger strikes had been countered by force-feeding which culminated in 1917 in the death of Thomas Ashe in Mountjoy Prison.

Related Topics:
Bobby Sands - Irish republican - Paramilitary - Hunger strike - 1981 - British government - Prisoner-of-war - Special Category Status - Northern Ireland - Nationalist - Irish - Irish - British - Water - Salt - Anglo-Irish War - Lord Mayor - Cork - Terence MacSwiney - Brixton - Force-feeding - Thomas Ashe - Mountjoy Prison

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