Irish Hunger Strike, Northern Ireland, 1981

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Information for Authority record
Name (Hebrew)
שביתת הרכב האירית, צפון אירלנד, 1981
Name (Latin)
Irish Hunger Strike, Northern Ireland, 1981
Name (Arabic)
שביתת הרכב האירית, צפון אירלנד, 1981
Other forms of name
IRA Hunger Strike, Northern Ireland, 1981
See Also From tracing topical name
Hunger strikes Northern Ireland
MARC
MARC
Other Identifiers
Wikidata: Q1417338
Library of congress: sh 92004238
Sources of Information
  • Work cat.: 92-28901: Ellman, M. The hunger artists, 1993:
  • Beresford, D. Ten men dead : the story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike, c1987.
  • Collins, T. The Irish hunger strike, c1987.
  • Time:
  • Washington Post:
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Wikipedia description:

The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976 when the British government withdrew Special Category Status (prisoner of war rather than criminal status) for convicted paramilitary prisoners. In 1978, the dispute escalated into the dirty protest, where prisoners refused to leave their cells to wash and covered the walls of their cells with excrement. In 1980, seven prisoners participated in the first hunger strike, which ended after 53 days. The second hunger strike took place in 1981 and was a showdown between the prisoners and the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. One hunger striker, Bobby Sands, was elected as a member of parliament during the strike, prompting media interest from around the world. The strike was called off after ten prisoners had starved themselves to death, including Sands, whose funeral was attended by 100,000 people. The strike radicalised Irish nationalist politics and was the driving force that enabled Sinn Féin to become a mainstream political party.

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