Michael McKevitt Bernadette Sands McKevitt, a sister of 1981 PIRA hunger striker and MP, Bobby Sands, who died during his hunger strike. Sands McKevitt was a leading member of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and had been described in media reports as the third highest ranking Real IRA officer. She left the 32 County Sovereignty Movement following the imprisonment of her husband. Michael McKevitt Michael McKevitt (born 4 September 1949) is an Irish republican who was convicted of directing terrorism as the leader of the paramilitary organisation, the Real IRA. McKevitt, a native of County Louth, joined the Provisional IRA during the
Hunger strike in the death of Thomas Ashe in Mountjoy Prison. During the Anglo-Irish war, in October 1920, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, died on hunger strike in Brixton prison. Two other Cork IRA men, Joe Murphy and Michael Fitzgerald, died in this protest. Over a period of 94 days, from August 11 to November 12, 1920 John and Peter Crowley, Thomas Donovan, Michael Burke, Michael O'Reilly, Christopher Upton, John Power, Joseph Kenny and Seán Hennessy, demanding reinstatement of political status and release from prison, undertook a hunger strike at the Cork County Gaol. Arthur Griffith called off the strikes