Hunger strikes have a long history in Irish culture. The Celts would starve themselves to disgrace someone who wronged them, and the starvation would go on until the situation/situations were made right. It was a way of "self-sacrifice" to the Catholics. If a hunger striker died, the person or people who caused the strike would suffer socially and have to pay costs to that striker's family (http://irelandsown.net/armaghwomen.html). In 1980-81, the offender to the Republican prisoners was the British government under Margaret Thatcher. What all Republican prisoners, male and female, wa…
