The British begin phasing out Special Category status. After this date, all prisoners convicted of terrorist acts are to be treated as ordinary criminals and locked in H-Block. Kieran Nugent, Provisional IRA member is the first prisoner convicted and not given Special Category status. Cardinal O'Fiaich visits Maze Prison and protests the unsanitary conditions. Three hundred Republican prisoners refuse to wear prison clothes and demand Special Category status.
Protesters wear only blankets and smear the walls in their cells with excreta.
27 October 1980 First Hunger Strike Tommy McKearney and six other IRA members start the first prison hunger strike demanding the right to wear their own clothes. Second Hunger Strike led by Bobby Sands Bobby Sands begins a new hunger strike on the fifth anniversary of the ending of Special Category status. April 1981 Sands elected MP Forty days into his hunger strike, Sands wins the seat for Fermanagh-South Tyrone. 5 May 1981 Bobby Sands dies on 66th day of hunger strike His death causes rioting in Northern Ireland and in the Republic 100,000 attend his funeral. The next day, provisional IRA prisoner, Joe McDonnell starts a hunger strike to take the place of Sands.