1981 Irish hunger strike

The 1981 hungerstrike was the result of the five year long protest by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest started out as the "blanket protest", when the Britsh gouvernment stoped giving the paramilitary prisoners status as warrior/political prisoners. In 1978 it became the "dirty protest" and prisoners refused to wash and covered the walls of their cells with excrement. The prisoners aim was to re-establish their political status by securing what were known as the "Five Demands":

* The right not to wear a prison uniform.
* The right not to do prison work.
* The right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits.
* The right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week.
* Full restoration of remission lost through the protest.

In 1980 this lead to the first hungerstrike. Seven prisioners participated and it lasted for 53 days.

The second hungerstrike was in 1981 and was a fight between the prisoners and the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Bobby Sands, one of the stirkers, become a Member of Parlament during the strike and became famous around the world. After ten men had died because of the hungerstrike, including Booby Sands, the huger strike was called off.

The hunger strike was the driving force that enabled Sinn Féin to become a mainstream political party.


It's sick tha the gouvernment let it go that far. I can undestand that they might not agree with what the prisioners wanted but it's so increadibly redicilous and stupid to let ten of them die before anything happens. All the prissioners wanted was basic stuff and the gouvernment was so stubborn that they let ten of them die. That's just stupid...

I'm truthful

Is it really lying, if it's something you're just hiding. You haven't got any questions about it or anything like that but at the same time you haven't said anything about it either. Is that lying?

It can't be lying, right? Because lying is when you say something that's not true. But by not saying anything at all... That can't be lying.