| Republican prisoners had organised a series of | | | | staggered intervals in order to maximise publicity, |
| protests seeking to regain their previous political | | | | build pressure and most importantly perhaps save |
| prisoner status. This commenced with the blanket | | | | the lives of those who joined later. The hunger |
| protest in 1976, in which prisoners refused to | | | | strike pursued five demands - the right not to |
| wear prison issue uniform and wore blankets | | | | wear prison uniform; the right not to do prison |
| instead. In the H-Blocks ill treatment was | | | | work; the right of free association with other |
| perpetuated by the prison authorities against | | | | prisoners and to organise educational and |
| prisoners in an attempt to break their resistance | | | | recreational pursuits; the right to one visit, one |
| to criminalisation. | | | | letter and one parcel per week and full restoration |
| In 1978 after a number of attacks on prisoners | | | | of remission lost through the protest. |
| leaving their cells to slop out, the inmates began | | | | Shortly after the commencement of the strike, |
| the dirty protest, where prisoners refused to | | | | Frank Maguire the Independent MP for Fermanagh |
| wash and smeared the walls of their cells with | | | | and South Tyrone died of a sudden heart attack |
| excrement. In 1980 Sands was selected as | | | | and precipitated a by-election. Sands was |
| Officer Commanding of the Provisional IRA at | | | | nominated on the ticket Anti H-Block/Armagh |
| Long Kesh succeeding Brendan Hughes who was | | | | Political Prisoner, he narrowly won the seat |
| participating in the first hunger strike. | | | | becoming the youngest MP at the time. On May |
| The 1981 Irish hunger strike started with Sands | | | | 5, 1981 having spent sixty-five days on hunger |
| refusing food on 1 March 1981, it had been | | | | strike, Bobby Sands died in the H-Block prison |
| decided that other prisoners would join at | | | | hospital at Long Kesh. |