'Let them all die': A century on from Ireland's biggest hunger strike

Riverstick man Denis Barry was one of two fatalities of the October 1923 hunger strikes, instigating in response to jailings for opposing the Anglo-Irish Treaty, writes Robert Hume

Denis Barry, from Riverstick, died on 20 Nov. 1923, after refusing food in Newbridge Internment Camp (Wikipedia)

  “I pledge myself in the name of the living Republic to the lives of my comrades, that I will not take food, or drink anything except water, until I am unconditionally released...”    

That was the promise sworn by over 8,000 prisoners in Ireland, 100 years ago.