August 9-10, 1971
Operation Demetrius takes place which is the catalyst of internment. It was an operation carried out by the British Army in Northern Ireland. It was to arrest any suspected IRA (Irish Republican Army) members. This sparked outrage and protests in Northern Ireland.
(Internment: meaning imprisonment without trial)
When discussing Internment and Militarization in the North the Dirty Protests, Hunger Strikes of 1980, and Five Demands are integral in its understanding. The dirty protests also known as the blanket protests were primarily ignited due to the removal of the title of special category prisoners. This is in association with the 1976 criminalisation policy in which those arrested IRA and INLA prisoners were to be no longer treated as prisoners of war but as common criminals. This specifically meant that they would have to wear ordinary prison outfits and generally be put in the same category as an ordinary prisoner. This broke the figurative barrier in which it was a war of foreigners and they would be considered as commoners. This went against all the IRA/INLA protesters worked for and believed in. In response agitation among the prisoners escalated and the dirty protests began to take form. In short, the dirty protests were IRA/INLA prisoners refusing to leave their cells to shower or use restrooms. This intensified as the prisoners had learned of other prisoners being badly beaten by officers. In response to these beatings the prisoners began to take their excrement and putting it across the walls of their cells. The cells were described as unbearable to walk past. In continuation in January of 1980 the prisoners listed out demands for their status. These were known as the “Five Demands”.
This was all asked for in order to regain the title of prisoner of war. With that specific title they were able to validate that they were part of a foreign war and were not part of the British Isles as well as under its control.
October 27, 1980
The first of the hunger strikes began.
March 1, 1981
Bobby Sands began hunger strike in Long Kesh
April 9, 1981
-Bobby Sands is elected into parliament as an Independent Republican. He’s elected as an H-Block prisoner and
May 5, 1981
Bobby Sands dies from starvation in the Long Kesh prison hospital. This is just after a month of him being part of Parliament.
