On October 27, 1980, republican prisoners in the Maze Prison, Northern Ireland, initiated a hunger strike. Seven prisoners refused food to protest the British government's withdrawal of Special Category Status, which had granted them political prisoner rights. This status had been revoked in 1976, leading to the "blanket protest" and "dirty protest." The hunger strikers demanded the return of their own clothes, an end to prison work, free association, and the restoration of remission. This first hunger strike, though eventually called off without immediate concessions, set the stage for the more widely known and tragic 1981 hunger strike.
