Hunger strikes have been an important part of the resistance strategy in many places. The suffragette movement applied the tool with some success during their campaign for the vote in the United Kingdom. Perhaps because of the links back to the celtic past however, they have been a persistent and effective tool for Irish Republicanism since the turn of the twentieth century.

Terence MacSwiney is perhaps the most well remembered of these Republican hunger strike martyrs of the War of Independence, and if the the modern era, certainly Bobby Sands claims the lions share of acclaim and attention.

But there were others. Another well-knonwn name is Thomas Ashe who perished in 1917 was imprisoned for his role in the 1916 rising but released. He was re-arrested following seditious speeches and sentenced to two years. His strike had lasted only 6 days before he was sent to the Mater Misericordiae Hospital and died there only a few hours later. It became clear that the forced feeding of Ashe was the direct cause of his death rather than the hunger strike.

MacSwiney's death occurred on the same day as the death of fellow hunger striker Joe Murphy and came a week after Michael Fitzgerald from Fermoy in Cork had died while on hunger strike. Yet it is MacSwiney we remember. Frank Gallagher, who went on to become editor of The Irish Press, head of the Government’s Information Bureau and Deputy Director of Radio Éireann, recorded his memories of being on hunger strike in his prison diary which was recently republished by Mercier Press in a new edition called Days of Fear.

There was a prolonged hunger strike at the end of the Civil War which resulted in the death of two men, Denny Barry and Andrew O'Sullivan. Even after Fianna Fáil came to power in 1932, hunger strikes were used by more extreme republicans. Although used on occasion through the next fifty years, it wasn't until the 1980s that the tactic was used in earnest.

The hunger strikes of the 1980s resulted in the deaths of ten men:

• Vol. Bobby Sands, IRA
• Vol. Francis Hughes, IRA
• Vol. Patsy O'Hara, INLA
• Vol. Raymond McCreesh, IRA
• Vol. Joe McDonnell, IRA
• Vol. Martin Hurson, IRA
• Vol. Kevin Lynch, INLA
• Vol. Kieran Doherty, IRA
• Vol. Thomas McElwee, IRA
• Vol. Michael Devine, INLA

Despite this fact, we nowadays only really remember Bobby Sands. That may be because he wrote a famous book on the subject, One Day In My Life, and more recently was the subject of a wonderful film, Hunger.

Whatever the morality of the tactic (If you want to join in our discussion about that topic, take our poll here and add your own views to the forum post) there can be no doubt that the use of hunger strikes has helped achieve the goals of the Republican movement throughout its existence.