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hunger strike
hunger strike, as a protest tactic by prisoners, has been fancifully traced back to early Irish traditions of shaming an enemy by fasting in protest at his actions (‘fasting upon’ him). A more likely derivation is from the example of the suffragettes (see feminism). On 25 September 1917 Thomas Ashe died after force feeding following a hunger strike in protest at conditions in Mountjoy jail, Dublin. A second strike in 1920 was suspended following the deaths of Terence MacSwiney and two others. Another, in October–November 1923, by republican prisoners still held following the end of the Civil War, collapsed in disarray, with two dead. De Valera's refusal to grant political status to IRA men imprisoned during the Second World War led to the death of two hunger strikers in April 1940 and a third in May 1946. In Northern Ireland the withdrawal of ‘special category’ status from IRA prisoners convicted after March 1976 provoked an immediate ‘dirty protest’, followed by a hunger strike during May–October 1981. The election to parliament of the strike's leader, Bobby Sands, initiated Sinn Féin's entry into electoral politics, while nationalist outrage at the death of Sands and nine others helped ensure some dramatic early successes at the polls.
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Cite this article
"hunger strike." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "hunger strike." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-hungerstrike.html "hunger strike." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. 2007. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-hungerstrike.html |
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hunger strike
hun·ger strike • n. a prolonged refusal to eat, carried out as a protest, typically by a prisoner. DERIVATIVES: hun·ger strik·er n. |
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Cite this article
"hunger strike." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "hunger strike." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-hungerstrike.html "hunger strike." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-hungerstrike.html |
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