Building 1981: The Creation of a Dominant Narrative of Irish Republican Prison Protest

When ten Irish republicans died on hunger strike in the Maze Prison outside Belfast in 1981, they were quickly transformed into some of the most celebrated martyrs in Irish republicanism.  Their deaths not only helped the remaining prisoners achieve their demands and catapulted Sinn Fein to electoral prominence, they gave rise to a culture of songs, art, and commemorative celebrations. Yet, the hunger strikes were only one aspect of five years of sustained protests against the British government’s criminalization strategy wherein they removed special category status from Northern Irish prisons. This designation, introduced in 1971, and removed in 1976, allowed Irish republicans to see and promote themselves as political prisoners of war. In an effort to regain political status, Irish Republican Army and Irish National Liberation Army prisoners staged two protests, the blanket protest and the no-wash or “dirty” protest, prior to embarking on hunger strikes, the last of which became the centerpiece of a dominant narrative.

In this paper I will first demonstrate the importance of the blanket, dirty protest, and loyalist protest to the ultimate success of the hunger strikes. I will argue that in the creation of the aforementioned dominant narrative both historians and the participants, themselves, have lionized the hunger strikers at the expense of the equally important, if less romantic, dirty protesters and loyalist opponents of criminalization. I will, finally, demonstrate that the hunger strikes are again being privileged above these other protests as conflict mounts over the preservation of the Maze prison.