Hunger Strike in Northern Ireland

Paper Summary:

This paper chronicles the 1981 Hunger Strike that was staged by Nationalist prisoners in Northern Ireland?s Maze Prison. The political background, its causes, and events of this demonstration are all discussed in depth from both perspectives of the British and North Ireland.

From the Paper:

?In 1976 the British government tried to criminalize the Nationalist prisoners. In 1981 the Nationalist prisoners criminalized the British government.? In one of their many bumbling attempts to quell the violence in Northern Ireland that did not take into account long term consequences, the British government suspended the right of habeas corpus in 1971 and interned thousands of Nationalists without charges. Public outrage and the fact that the internees were viewed as distinct from the rest of the prison population caused the British government to allow them special privileges. Later, all imprisoned perpetrators of politically motivated crime were given the same rights when they were granted Special Category Status in 1972. The British government soon realized their mistake in legitimizing the Nationalist struggle against them by treating them as prisoners of war. They ended the internment policy and criminalized all acts of violence, no matter the motivation. The Nationalist prisoners responded with a chain of demonstrations that culminated in the 1981 Hunger Strike. This protest managed, through the death of ten prisoners and the election of one of those to the Northern Ireland Assembly, to bring the Nationalist cause to worldwide attention and arouse both popular and political support at home.

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