1 March 1981
Bobby Sands, officer commanding of IRA prisoners in the H-block, began a new wave of hunger strikes. This date marked the fifth anniversary of the end of Special Category Status, which began the treatment of Republican inmates as common criminals rather than prisoners of war. Legal status and language were central to the H-block protests, not just because gaining POW status shows British recognition of insurgent forces in Northern Ireland as foreign entities, a clear concession in opposition with Unionism, but because “the rightful recognition of a political prisoner” protects inmates under the Geneva conventions, and would likely end much of the severe torture and degradation Long Kesh internees had to endure (Sands 219). Other prisoners in H-block transitioned the no-wash protest into a ‘clean’ blanket protest, not to draw attention away from the hunger strike.
https://irishstudies.sunygeneseoenglish.org/1981-hunger-strike/history/1981-2/prison-protests/
https://www.bobbysandstrust.com/
Bobby’s mural
https://www.bitchute.com/video/F1DfqummlEIf/
