Editing HM Prison Maze (section)

===Hunger strike===
{{Main|1981 Irish hunger strike}}
[[File:h-block corridor.jpg|right|thumb|A view along the corridor of one of the wings of H4]]

Republicans outside the prison took the battle to the media and both sides fought for public support. Inside the prison, the prisoners took another step and organised a [[hunger strike]].

On 27 October 1980, seven republican prisoners refused food and demanded political status. The [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] government led by [[Margaret Thatcher]] did not initially give in. In December, the prisoners called off the hunger strike when the government appeared to concede to their demands. However, the government immediately reverted to their previous stance, in the belief that the prisoners would not start another strike. [[Bobby Sands]], the leader of the [[Provisional IRA]] prisoners, began a second action on 1 March 1981. Outside the prison, in a major publicity coup, Sands was nominated for Parliament and won the [[April 1981 Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election|Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election]]. But the British government still resisted and on 5 May, after 66 days on hunger strike, Sands died. More than 100,000 people attended Sands' funeral in [[Belfast]]. Another nine hunger strikers (members of both the IRA and the [[Irish National Liberation Army|INLA]]) died by the end of August before the hunger strike was called off in October.