The Turkish Parliament's biographical record for Irmak is concise, indicating that she has completed high school and is currently single.

On 18 April 2009, while still co-chair of the DTP, she was again arrested in a police operation in Mardin, and detained in Diyarbakır E Type Prison on charges of membership of a terrorist organization.

[6] She was being tried alongside 175 other Kurdish politicians and political activists in the so-called mass 'KCK trial', which began in October 2010.

[10] In February 2012, she went on hunger strike along with many other fellow detainees and released a statement in support for Abdullah Öcalan.

[21] On the 15 January 2019 she declared she will join Leyla Güven in her hunger strike demanding better detention conditions for Abdullah Öcalan.