Editing Irish National Liberation Army (section)

===Hunger strike===
IRA and INLA prisoners convicted after March 1976 did not have [[Special Category Status]] applied in prison. Defending paramilitary prisoners' right to special category status, i.e. political status was an issue the IRSP and INLA advocated for from the outset, both within the prisons and on outside, when others, including the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin, seemed reluctant to do so. This could be partly attributed to IRSP/INLA prisoners being immediately forced into confrontation with prison staff as soon as the movement was formed. Because IRSP prisoners were not members of the Official IRA or Provisional IRA they were denied political status while it was still granted and in summer 1975 twenty IRSP prisoners went on hunger strike for the right to wear their own clothes, to associate freely, refuse to do prison work, and to elect their own spokesmen. These would later become the core of the five demands of the H-Block protest and the 1981 hunger strike was fought. As the 1 March 1976 deadline for the removal of special category status approached the Northern Ireland Office met with a council of representing all paramilitary organisations, loyalist and republican, inside Long Kesh prison. The British offered concessions in return for the removal of special category status. Only the IRSP would go on to flatly refuse the offer.

[[File:Maze Prison - geograph - 341034.jpg|thumb|[[HM Prison Maze|Maze prison]] near Belfast, site of the prisoners' protests and hunger strike]]

On 14 November the first IRSP/INLA prisoner, James Connolly Brady of Derry, joined the [[blanket protest]]. Both the INLA and IRA attacked prison staff outside the prison. However, unlike Sinn Féin, the IRSP engaged in popular agitation on the streets in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, and elsewhere. Behind the public rhetoric, there was deep concern within the IRSP about the commitment of the IRA/Sinn Féin to the H-Block protest; Sinn Féin had voted at its Ard Chomhairle to prohibit cooperation with the IRSP in protest activities in the South and in June 1978 Sinn Féin protests stopped as it emerged the IRA were in secret negotiations with mediators. According to Holland and McDonald, "as conditions inside the H-Blocks deteriorated, so did relations between the IRSP and the Provisionals." The Sinn Féin Ard-Chomhairle put out a directive in September 1978 banning any IRSP speaker from sharing a Provisional speaker, and at a meeting held in [[Liberty Hall]] to discuss the prison crisis all the Provisionals walked out when Mick Plunkett stood up to speak. The IRA regarded the prisons campaign as a distraction from the armed struggle and were reluctant to get too involved in any protest movement they could not control. However, hunger strike publicity events in continental Europe received an enthusiastic reception.<ref name="Holland, Jack 1994 256-261">Holland, Jack; McDonald, Henry (1994). INLA Deadly Divisions p. 256-261.</ref>

On 27 October 1980, republican prisoners in HM Prison Maze began a hunger strike. One hundred and forty-eight prisoners volunteered to be part of the strike, but a total of seven were selected to match the number of men who signed the Easter 1916 Proclamation of the Republic. The group consisted of IRA members Brendan Hughes, Tommy McKearney, Raymond McCartney, Tom McFeeley, Sean McKenna, Leo Green, and INLA member John Nixon. This hunger strike ended a week before Christmas. In January 1981, it became clear that the prisoners' demands had not been conceded. Prison authorities began to supply the prisoners with officially issued civilian clothing, whereas the prisoners demanded the right to wear their own clothing. In addition, the militancy of INLA blanket men, who were refusing to withdraw from the protest, was causing problems. On 27 January INLA prisoners rioted because the INLA Officer Commanding [[Patsy O'Hara]] was not permitted by the authorities to see his own men. The stage was set for another confrontation and in March the 1981 Irish hunger strike began. Three INLA members died during the latter hunger strike – Patsy O'Hara, [[Kevin Lynch (hunger striker)|Kevin Lynch]], and [[Michael Devine (hunger striker)|Michael Devine]], along with seven Provisional IRA members. The hunger strike leader [[Bobby Sands]] and Anti H-Block activist [[Owen Carron]] were elected to the [[British Parliament]], and two other protesting prisoners were elected to the [[Dáil]]. In addition, there were work stoppages and large demonstrations all over Ireland in sympathy with the hunger strikers. It was reported the turnout for Patsy O'Hara's funeral was equal to that of Bloody Sunday.

[[File:25th commemoration of 1981 Irish hunger strike.JPG|thumb|A commemoration on the 25th anniversary of the hunger strike]]
{{Campaignbox Northern Ireland Troubles|state=collapsed}}

There was a bitter clash over the IRSP's share of money raised in an American fund-raising tour undertaken by three of the hunger-strikers' relatives, Liz O'Hara, Malachy McCreesh, and Seán Sands. The tour had been organised by [[Noraid]], the Provisional IRA's support group in the United States. Noraid had objected to O'Hara being on the tour because her brother Patsy was a "communist" and would sully the image republicans had in the United States. However, the other relatives refused to go unless she accompanied them. There were disputes over the exact amount of money raised but the only certainty is INLA prisoners received none of it. IRSP member Seán Flynn travelled to New York where he met [[Martin Galvin]] a leading Noraid spokesman. The meeting devolved into a shouting match with Galvin denouncing Flynn as a communist and having him thrown out of the house. Flynn toured the United States as a representative of the H-Block committee but Noraid was told to stay away from any meeting he was speaking at. A wealthy Noraid supporter who did attend a meeting was so disgusted by Flynn's sympathy for [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] and [[African-Americans]] that he tore up a previously promised cheque for $10,000. He allegedly told Flynn "I don't like niggers".<ref name="Holland, Jack 1994"/>

The INLA unit which operated in the Lower Falls area of Belfast, led by Gerard Steenson, were particularly active at this time. However, the Belfast INLA was increasingly at odds with the Dublin leadership for personal and political reasons. By the beginning of 1982, this faction had shot and wounded the INLA's northern organiser Jackie Goodman, IRSP Belfast city councillor Sean Flynn and Flynn's brother Harry Flynn, hiding out in Dublin after escaping from the Maze prison in 1976. Steenson's faction claimed they were the true INLA. In response, the old Dublin INLA leadership declared they be shot on sight.<ref name="Fortnight Publications 1983"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Owen |first=Arwel Ellis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y4lnAAAAMAAJ&q=gerard+steenson |title=The Anglo-Irish Agreement: The first three years |date=1994-11-30 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=9780708312742 |access-date=2 October 2020 |archive-date=23 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923134527/https://books.google.com/books?id=Y4lnAAAAMAAJ&q=gerard+steenson |url-status=live }}</ref>