Gerard Adams is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018,and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011,he followed the policy of abstentionism as a Member of Parliament (MP) of the British Parliament for the Belfast West constituency.
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.
Robert Storey was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer from Belfast,Northern Ireland. Prior to an 18-year conviction for possessing a rifle,he also spent time on remand for a variety of charges and in total served 20 years in prison. He also played a key role in the Maze Prison escape,the biggest prison break in British penal history.
Daniel Gerard Morrison is an Irish former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer,author and activist who played a crucial role in public events during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. An Irish republican,Morrison is also a former Sinn Féin publicity director and editor of Republican News and An Phoblacht. He is the secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust and current chairman of Féile an Phobail,the largest community arts festival in Ireland.
The dirty 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 and a protest at Armagh Women's Prison in Northern Ireland. In March 1978 some prisoners refused to leave their cells to shower or use the lavatory because of attacks by prison officers,and the inmates would later start smearing excrement on the walls of their cells.
Dolours Price was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer.
Gerard Kelly is an Irish republican politician and former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer who played a leading role in the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998. He is currently a member of Sinn Féin's Ard Chomhairle and a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Belfast.
Brendan McFarlane is an Irish republican activist. Born into a Roman Catholic family,he was brought up in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast,Northern Ireland. At 16,he left Belfast to train as a priest in a north Wales seminary. He joined the Provisional IRA in 1969.
Siobhán O'Hanlon was an IRA volunteer and Sinn Féin activist.
Billy McKee was an Irish republican and a founding member and leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
Brendan Hughes,also known as "The Dark",and "Darkie" was a leading Irish republican and former Officer Commanding (OC) of the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). He was the leader of the 1980 Irish hunger strike.
Tommy McKearney is a former Irish volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army who took part in the 1980 hunger strike.
Raymond McCartney is an Irish former Sinn Féin politician,and a former hunger striker and volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).
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.
Pat "Beag" McGeown was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
Jackie "Teapot" McMullan is a former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
Martin Meehan was a Sinn Féin politician and former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Meehan was the first person to be convicted of membership of the Provisional IRA,and he spent eighteen years in prison during the Troubles.
Laurence Marley was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member from Ardoyne,Belfast,Northern Ireland. He was one of the masterminds behind the 1983 mass escape of republican prisoners from the Maze Prison,where Marley was imprisoned at the time,although he did not participate in the break-out. Marley was described by British journalist Peter Taylor as having been a close friend of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams. Marley was shot dead by an Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) unit two years after his release from the Maze. His shooting was in retaliation for the killing of leading UVF member John Bingham the previous September by the Ardoyne IRA.
The Bayardo Bar attack took place on 13 August 1975 in Belfast,Northern Ireland. A unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA),led by Brendan McFarlane,launched a bombing and shooting attack on a pub on Aberdeen Street,in the loyalist Shankill area. IRA members stated the pub was targeted because it was frequented by members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Four Protestant civilians and one UVF member were killed,while more than fifty were injured.
Tom McFeely is an Irish property developer and former member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Originally from Dungiven area in County Londonderry,Northern Ireland,McFeely was drawn into the violence that signalled the beginning of the Troubles in 1969 and would soon become a member of the Provisional IRA. Following a period of living life on the run,McFeely was captured and imprisoned after he and an accomplice robbed a post office in the mid-1970s. McFeely was sent to HM Prison Maze where he took on a leadership role amongst other imprisoned IRA men. In 1980 McFeely led seven IRA men on a hunger strike in protest against the revoking of special status for political prisoners,ultimately surviving for 53 days without food until the strike was called off by IRA leadership. In 1986 McFeely was amongst a number of Irish republicans who split from the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin over their recognition of the legitimacy of Dáil Eireann. He subsequently founded the League of Communist Republicans alongside fellow inmate Tommy McKearney.
