Inside the political maze of the H-Block hunger strike

The 1981 hunger strike resulted in a showdown between Margaret Thatcher and Ireland’s politicians, but ultimately in the deaths of 10 prisoners, writes Ryle Dwyer

PROTESTS by Republican prisoners began in the Maze and Armagh women’s prison in September 1976 when the first prisoners were convicted after the March 1976 decision to phase out special category status.

The prisoners refused to do prison work or wear prison clothes. They wore only blankets, and this became known as the blanket protest. In March 1978, the dispute escalated into the dirty protest when the men began fouling cells with their own excrement.