Dirty protest

[2] In 1976, as part of the policy of "criminalisation", the British Government brought an end to Special Category Status for paramilitary prisoners in Northern Ireland.

[3] The end to Special Category Status was a serious threat to the authority which the paramilitary leaderships inside prison had been able to exercise over their own men, as well as being a propaganda blow.

[9]Despite the conditions, Ó Fiaich said the morale of the prisoners was high: From talking to them [he wrote] it is evident that they intend to continue their protest indefinitely and it seems they prefer to face death rather than to submit to being classed as criminals.

[13] They did not conduct a blanket protest, as women prisoners in Northern Ireland already had the right to wear their own clothes, but this did include smearing their menstrual blood on the cell walls.

[12] On 27 October 1980, IRA members Brendan Hughes, Tommy McKearney, Raymond McCartney, Tom McFeeley, Sean McKenna, Leo Green, and INLA member John Nixon,[14] began a hunger strike aimed at restoring political status for paramilitary prisoners by securing the "Five Demands".

[12] After a 53-day hunger strike with McKenna lapsing in and out of a coma and on the brink of death, the government appeared to concede the essence of the prisoners' five demands with a 30-page document detailing a proposed settlement.

With the document in transit to Belfast, Hughes took the decision to save McKenna's life and end the strike after 53 days on 18 December.

On 4 February, the prisoners issued a statement saying that the British government had failed to resolve the crisis and declared their intention of "hunger striking once more".

[15] The 1981 Irish hunger strike began on 1 March when Bobby Sands refused food,[16] and the dirty protest ended the following day.