Beginning of the Hunger Strike by Seven Republican Prisoners in the H Blocks at Long Kesh

The hunger strike begins on October 27, 1980, when seven Republican prisoners in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh (Maze Prison) refuse food in protest of the British government’s withdrawal of Special Category Status for paramilitary prisoners. Their demands include the right to wear their own clothes, avoid prison labor, and associate freely. They are later joined by three female prisoners in Armagh Prison, marking a unified protest across gender lines. This first hunger strike, though ended without deaths, set the stage for the more widely known 1981 hunger strike.