The 1981 hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during The Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners.
Irish political historian, the author, explores the various social and political impacts of the 1981 Hunger Strike in this book. He looks not only at the impacts experienced in the North of Ireland but Britain, Europe, the United States, and the rest of the world as well. In short, this is the story of the 1981 Hunger Strike and its contribution to what the author defines as 'the Long Revolution'.