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The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. It began when the British Government withdrew from convicted paramilitary prisoners Special Category Status, a de facto prisoner-of-war status granting them privileges like those specified in the Geneva Convention. Twenty-three such prisoners participated in the strike, refusing food for weeks and, in many cases, months. How many of them ultimately died of starvation? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary