Description

The Long Kesh Hunger Strikers: 25 Years Later

This article, researched and written 25 years after the death of 10 hunger strikers in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh, focuses on the experiences of survivors of a second hunger strike. It explores the politics of the time within the prison, the struggle for political status of Irish Republican prisoners and the defiance of the British government under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher that led to the deaths of the Hunger Strikers. The interviews also explore the contribution of the Hunger Strike to the war against the British state and to the eventual move towards peace.

hunger strike; Irish republican movement, political status, criminalization, dirty protest, blanket-men

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 33, No. 4 (2006): 69-91