Provisional Irish Republican Army 1982, reflecting the sequence in which the old leadership of the republican movement were being sidelined. IRA prisoners convicted after March 1976 did not have Special Category Status applied in prison. In response, more than 500 prisoners refused to wear prison clothes. This activity culminated in the 1981 Irish hunger strike, when seven IRA and three Irish National Liberation Army members starved themselves to death in pursuit of political status. 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,
Brixton Prison IRA escape 1991 escape from a British prison in history. Both Pearse & Nessan were awaiting trial on charges relating to a suspected IRA plot to assassinate a former brewery company chairman, Sir Charles Tidbury. The escape happened at a period of heightened IRA activity in mainland Britain. In February 1991 the IRA had fired mortars at 10 Downing Street, home of the British Prime Minister and 11 days later bombed Victoria and Paddington stations in London resulting in one death and dozens of injuries. Two pistols were smuggled into Brixton prison to the IRA volunteers. When a prison guard came to open