Joe McDonnell, an Irish republican paramilitary and hunger striker, died on July 8, 1981, in the Maze Prison, Northern Ireland. He was the fifth of ten republican prisoners to die during the 1981 Irish hunger strike, protesting the British government's withdrawal of Special Category Status for paramilitary prisoners. McDonnell, a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), had been imprisoned for firearms offenses. His death, like those of the other hunger strikers, intensified political tensions and garnered significant international attention to the conflict in Northern Ireland.
