Pat Sheehan (Irish republican) Pat Sheehan (Irish republican) Pat Sheehan (born 1958) is a Sinn Féin politician in Northern Ireland, and former Provisional Irish Republican Army hunger striker at the Maze Prison. Sheehan was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In 1978 he was convicted of causing an explosion and sentenced to 15 years. Sheehan was the 17th republican inmate at the Maze Prison to join the 1981 hunger strikes, which was aimed at gaining political status for Provisional IRA and Irish National Liberation Army prisoners. He began fasting on 10 August - after nine prisoners had already starved themselves to death - and ended
Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape thousand members of the Irish Defence Forces and Garda Síochána ensued. Mallon was recaptured at a Gaelic Athletic Association dance in a hotel near Portlaoise on 10 December 1973, and imprisoned in Portlaoise Prison. He escaped from there in a mass break-out on 18 August 1974, when nineteen prisoners escaped after overpowering guards and using gelignite to blast through the gates. He was recaptured in Foxrock in January 1975 and returned to Portlaoise Prison. O'Hagan was recaptured in Dublin in early 1975, and also imprisoned in Portlaoise Prison. After the end of his original twelve-month sentence, he was immediately arrested