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Episode details

World Service,05 Feb 2010,10 mins

Northern Ireland Hunger Strikes

Witness History

Available for over a year

In 1981 at the height of 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland, Republican prisoners in the Maze prison staged a series of hunger strikes. They were campaigning against the British Government for a united Ireland and they wanted recognition as politcal prisoners. Many of them had been imprisoned for being members of the IRA. Laurence McKeown was a member of the IRA and in 1981 was serving a life sentence in the Maze prison. He tells Louise Hidalgo why he was prepared to starve himself to death for what he believed in.

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