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This is an incomplete list of recent hunger strikes and people who have conducted a hunger strike.
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not solid food. Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are named dry hunger strikers.
The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976 when the British government withdrew Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners. In 1978, the dispute escalated into the dirty protest, where prisoners refused to leave their cells to wash and covered the walls of their cells with excrement. In 1980, seven prisoners participated in the first hunger strike, which ended after 53 days.
Events from the year 1920 in Ireland.
Terence James MacSwiney was an Irish playwright, author and politician. He was elected as Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork during the Irish War of Independence in 1920. He was arrested by the British Government on charges of sedition and imprisoned in Brixton Prison. His death there in October 1920 after 74 days on hunger strike brought him and the Irish Republican campaign to international attention.
The blanket protest was part of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners held in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland. The republican prisoners' status as political prisoners, known as Special Category Status, had begun to be phased out in 1976. Among other things, this meant that they would now be required to wear prison uniforms like ordinary convicts. The prisoners refused to accept the administrative designation of ordinary criminals, and refused to wear the prison uniform.
Seán McCaughey was an Irish Republican Army (IRA) leader in the 1930s and 1940s and hunger striker.
Patrick Quinn was a volunteer with the 1st Battalion, South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
Laurence McKeown is an Irish author, playwright, screenwriter, and former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
Michael Fitzgerald also known as Mick Fitzgerald, was among the first members of the Irish Republican Army and played a significant role in organising it. He rose to the rank of Commandant, Officer Commanding (OC) in the First Battalion, Cork Number 2 Brigade. He died during the 1920 Cork hunger strike at Cork Gaol. Fitzgerald led 65 men in the hunger strike which was in protest at their detention without being either charged or convicted of any crime. The hunger strike is credited with bringing additional world-wide attention to the Irish cause for independence.
Denis "Denny" Barry was an Irish Republican who died during the 1923 Irish hunger strikes, shortly after the Irish Civil War.
Leyla Güven is a Kurdish politician and HDP MP for Hakkari, co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) and former mayor of the municipality of Viranşehir in the Şanlıurfa Province of Southeast Anatolia of Turkey, where she represented the former Democratic Society Party (DTP).
Robert Gerard Sands was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland. Sands helped to plan the 1976 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing in Dunmurry, which was followed by a gun battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Sands was arrested while trying to escape and sentenced to 14 years for firearms possession.
The 2014 Kobanî protests in Turkey were large-scale rallies by pro-People's Defense Units (YPG) protestors in Turkey which occurred in autumn 2014, as a spillover of the crisis in Kobanî. Large demonstrations unfolded in Turkey, and quickly descended into violence between protesters and the Turkish police. Several military incidents between Turkish forces and militants of the Youth Wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in south-eastern Turkey contributed to the escalation. Protests then spread to various cities in Turkey. Protesters were met with tear gas and water cannons, and initially 12 people were killed. A total of 31 people were killed in subsequent protesting up to 14 October.
Jordi Sànchez i Picanyol is a Spanish political activist from Catalonia, who was president of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) between May 2015 and November 2017.
SMNI News Channel, known on-air as SMNI News, is a Philippine far-right religious free-to-air news and public service television network based in Makati. It is owned and operated by Swara Sug Media Corporation, the parent company of Sonshine Media Network International, a broadcasting arm of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) led by Filipino televangelist and religious leader, Apollo Quiboloy.
In October 1923 mass hunger strikes were undertaken by Irish republican prisoners protesting the continuation of their internment without trial. The Irish Civil War had ended six months earlier yet the newly formed Provisional Government of the Irish Free State was slow in releasing the thousands of Irish republican prisoners opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
Michael Joseph Whitty was the youngest of the 22 Irish republicans who died while under on hunger strike in the 20th century. Decades after his death another Volunteer also died on 2 August during the 1981 Irish hunger strike. Volunteer Whitty fought with the IRA in the Irish War of Independence, on the Anti-Treaty side in the Irish Civil War and died while under internment by the Irish Free State government.
Abdullah Öcalan has been imprisoned on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara since February 1999. He is serving a life sentence for violating article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code. Initially he was sentenced to death but the conviction was commuted to a life sentence in October 2002. Abdullah Öcalan's imprisonment and the detention conditions are an issue that constantly causes constraints in the Turkish-Kurdish political sphere which has also an influence on the relations between Turkey and international organizations.
The 1920 Cork hunger strike occurred in late 1920, during the Irish War of Independence, when 65 men interned without trial in Cork County Gaol went on hunger strike, demanding release from prison, and reinstatement of their status as political prisoners. Beginning on 11 August 1920, they were joined the following day by the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney. A week into the hunger strike, all but 11 of the hunger strikers were released or deported to prison in England, with MacSwiney being among the latter.
Several hunger strikes were undertaken in Turkey from 2016 to 2017.