Editing Hunger strike (section)

===Ireland===
[[File:Remember the Hunger Strikers Glasnevin Cemetery Dublin.JPG|thumb|Irish Hunger Strikers Memorial Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin]]
Hunger strikes have deep roots in Irish society and in the Irish psyche. Fasting in order to bring attention to an injustice which one felt under his lord, and thus shame him, was a common feature of [[Brehon Laws|early Irish]] society and this tactic was fully incorporated into the [[Brehon]] legal system. The tradition is ultimately most likely part of the still older Indo-European tradition of which the Irish were part.<ref>[[D.A. Binchy]], "A Pre-Christian Survival in Mediaeval Irish Hagiography", in ''Ireland in Early Mediaeval Europe'' (Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp. 168–178</ref><ref>[[Rudolf Thurneysen]], "Das Fasten beim Pfändungsverfahren", ''Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie'' 15 (1924–25) 260–275.</ref> Within the 20th century a total of 22 Irish republicans died on hunger strike with survivors suffering long-term health and psychological effects.

The tactic was used by [[Physical force Irish republicanism|physical force republicans]] during the [[Irish revolutionary period|1916–23 revolutionary period]]. Early use of hunger strikes was countered with [[force-feeding]], culminating in 1917 in the death of [[Thomas Ashe]] in [[Mountjoy Prison]]. During the [[Anglo-Irish war]], in October 1920, the [[Lord Mayor]] of [[Cork (city)|Cork]], [[Terence MacSwiney]], died on hunger strike in [[Brixton prison]]. At the same time, the [[1920 Cork hunger strike]] took place. Two other Cork [[Irish Republican Army (1919–1922)|Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) men, [[Joe Murphy (Irish Republican)|Joe Murphy]] and [[Michael Fitzgerald (Irish Republican)|Michael Fitzgerald]], died in this protest. Demanding reinstatement of political status and release from prison, nine men undertook a hunger strike at [[Cork County Gaol]] for 94 days, from August 11 to November 12, 1920.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/11/13/109801275.pdf | work=The New York Times | title=END HUNGER STRIKE OF CORK PRISONERS; Sinn Féin Leader Absolves Them and They Take Food After 94 Days' Fast. AMBUSH FIVE JOURNALISTS Soldiers Kill Two and Capture Seven of the Attackers—Mrs. MacSwiney Coming Here | date=November 13, 1920 | access-date=June 14, 2018 | archive-date=February 25, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225134614/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/11/13/109801275.pdf | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>''Guinness Book of Records 1988'', p. 21</ref> [[Arthur Griffith]] called off the strikes after the deaths of MacSwiney, Murphy and Fitzgerald.

During the early 1920s, the vessel {{HMS|Argenta}} was used as a [[prison ship]] for the holding of [[Irish republican]]s by the British. Conditions on board were "unbelievable"<ref name="Kleinrichert, Denise 2000">{{cite book| last = Kleinrichert| first = Denise| title = Republican internment and the prison ship Argenta 1922| year = 2001| publisher = Irish Academic Press| isbn = 978-0-7165-2683-4 }}</ref> and there were several hunger strikes, including one involving upwards of 150 men in the winter of 1923.<ref>{{cite book| last = Hopkinson| first = Michael| title = The Irish War of Independence| year = 2004| publisher = M.H. Gill & Company U. C.| isbn = 978-0-7171-3741-1 }}</ref>

====Irish hunger strikes between 1923 and 1976====
{{See also| 1923 Irish Hunger Strikes}}
In February 1923, 23 women (members of Cumann na mBan) went on hunger strike for 34 days over the arrest and imprisonment without trial of Irish republican prisoners. The Free State subsequently released the women republican prisoners. Most of the male republicans were not released until the following year.<ref>McCarthy, Pat, (2015), ''The Irish Revolution, 1912–1923'', Four Courts Press, Dublin, p.132, ISBN 978-1-84682-410-4</ref> After the end of the [[Irish Civil War]] in October 1923, up to 8,000 [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|IRA]] prisoners went on hunger strike to protest their continued detention by the [[Irish Free State]] (a total of over 12,000 republicans had been interned by May 1923).<ref>The Forgotten Hunger Strikes". hungerstrikes.org.</ref> Three men, [[Denny Barry]], [[Joseph Whitty]], and [[Andy O'Sullivan (Irish Republican)|Andy O'Sullivan]], died during the 1923 Irish Hunger Strikes. The strike, however, was called off by Republican leadership in the camps (November 23, 1923) before any more deaths occurred.

Under [[Éamon de Valera|de Valera]]'s [[Government of the 7th Dáil|first Fianna Fáil government]] in 1932, military pensions were awarded to dependants of republicans who died in 1920s hunger strikes on the same basis as those who were [[killed in action]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1932/act/24/section/5/enacted/en/html#sec5|title=Army Pensions Act, 1932, Section 5(2)|work=[[Irish Statute Book]]|access-date=July 17, 2017|quote=the word "killed" includes ... death as an immediate result of refusing to take nourishment while detained in prison|archive-date=October 31, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171031012544/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1932/act/24/section/5/enacted/en/html#sec5|url-status=live}}</ref> During [[The Emergency (Ireland)|the state of emergency]] of [[World War II]] [[Government of the 10th Dáil|another De Valera government]] interned many IRA members, three of whom died on hunger strike: [[Sean McCaughey]], [[Tony D'Arcy]] and [[Jack McNeela]]. Hundreds of others carried out shorter hunger strikes during the de Valera years.

The tactic was revived by the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) in the early 1970s, when several republicans successfully used hunger strikes to get themselves released from custody without charge in the [[Republic of Ireland]]. [[Michael Gaughan (Irish republican)|Michael Gaughan]] died after being force-fed in [[Parkhurst Prison]] in 1974. [[Frank Stagg (Irish republican)|Frank Stagg]], an IRA member being held in [[Wakefield Prison]], died in 1976 after a 62-day hunger strike which he began as a campaign to be [[repatriate]]d to Ireland.<ref>{{cite book | last = White | first = Robert | title = Ruairí Ó Brádaigh: The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary | publisher = [[Indiana University Press]] | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-0253347084 | pages = 246–247}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = O'Donnell | first = Ruán | title = Special Category: The IRA in English Prisons Vol.1: 1968–78 | publisher = [[Irish Academic Press]] | year = 2012 | isbn = 978-0-7165-3142-5 | page = 364 }}</ref>

Members of other movements like [[Holger Meins]] of German [[Red Army Faction|Red Army Fraction]] used hunger strikes as a political weapon at this time. Meins went on hunger strike for the first time in 1973 together with other prisoners in protest against the prison conditions. The RAF prisoners wanted to be pooled together and claimed prisoner of war status.  The 1.83m tall Meins still weighed 39 kg in November 1973 and died in prison.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sontheimer |first=Michael |date=2007-11-08 |title=RAF |url=https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/raf-a-948828.html |access-date=2024-06-03 |work=Der Spiegel |language=de |issn=2195-1349}}</ref>

====Irish hunger strike of 1981====
{{Main|1981 Irish hunger strike}}
{{See also|Anti H-Block|HM Prison Maze}}
In 1980, seven Irish Republican prisoners, six from the IRA and one from the [[Irish National Liberation Army]], in the [[Maze Prison]] launched a hunger strike as a protest against the revocation by the [[British Government]] of a [[prisoner of war|prisoner-of-war]]-like [[Special Category Status]] for [[paramilitary]] prisoners in [[Northern Ireland]].<ref>{{cite book | last = White | first = Robert | title = Out of the Ashes: An Oral History of the Provisional Irish Republican Movement | publisher = Merrion Press | year = 2017 | page = 173 | isbn = 9781785370939}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Dillon | first = Martin | author-link = Martin Dillon | title = The Dirty War | publisher = [[Arrow Books]] | year = 1991 | page = 288 | isbn = 978-0-09-984520-1}}</ref> The strike, led by [[Brendan Hughes]], was called off before any deaths, when the British government seemed to offer to concede their demands; however, the British Government then reneged on the details of the agreement. The prisoners then called another hunger strike the following year. This time, instead of many prisoners striking at the same time, the hunger strikers started fasting one after the other in order to maximise publicity over the fate of each one.<ref>{{cite book | last = Taylor | first = Peter | author-link = Peter Taylor (Journalist) | title = Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin | publisher = [[Bloomsbury Publishing]] | year = 1997 | isbn = 0-7475-3818-2 | page = 237}}</ref>

[[Bobby Sands]] was the first of ten Irish republican [[paramilitary]] prisoners to die after 66 days during the 1981 hunger strike, with [[Michael_Devine_(hunger_striker)|Mickey Devine]] being the last to die after 60 days. There was widespread sympathy for the hunger strikers from Irish republicans and the broader [[Irish nationalism|nationalist]] community on both sides of the [[Irish border]]. Sands was elected as an MP for [[Fermanagh and South Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)|Fermanagh and South Tyrone]] to the United Kingdom's [[House of Commons]] and two other prisoners, [[Paddy Agnew (Irish republican)|Paddy Agnew]] (who was not a hunger striker) and [[Kieran Doherty (hunger striker)|Kieran Doherty]], were elected to [[Dáil Éireann]] in the [[Republic of Ireland]] by electorates who wished to register their opposition to the British Government's policy. The ten men survived without food for 46 to 73 days,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.morrigan.net/starryplough/apr2005/apr2005.pdf |title=The Starry Plough on 1981 Irish hunger strikes |access-date=June 22, 2006 |archive-date=February 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130224042207/http://www.morrigan.net/starryplough/apr2005/apr2005.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> taking only water and salt, before succumbing. After the deaths of the men and severe public disorder, the British Government granted partial concessions to the prisoners, and the strike was called off. The hunger strikes gave a significant [[propaganda]] boost to a previously severely demoralised IRA.