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What happened in the hunger strike? (IRA Strike 25th Anniversary)

On the 25th anniversary of the death of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, the BBC News Website examines the events which resulted in 10 men starving themselves to death.

The seeds of the 1981 hunger strike by republicans at the Maze prison were sown five years previously when the British government decided newly convicted prisoners would be treated as ordinary criminals.
Read entire article at BBC