The Troubles republican prisoners led to more than 500 of them in the Maze prison initiating the "blanket" and "dirty" protests. Their protests culminated in hunger strikes in 1980 and 1981, aimed at the restoration of political status, as well as other concessions. In the 1981 Irish hunger strike, ten republican prisoners (seven from the Provisional IRA and three from the INLA) died of starvation. The first hunger striker to die, Bobby Sands, was elected to Parliament on an Anti-H-Block ticket, as was his election agent Owen Carron following Sands' death. The hunger strikes resonated among many nationalists; over 100,000 people attended
Kieran Doherty (hunger striker) him was unveiled in Leinster House by Sinn Féin. Kieran Doherty (hunger striker) Kieran Doherty (16 October 1955 – 2 August 1981) was an Irish republican hunger striker, Teachta Dála (TD) and a volunteer in the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Doherty was the third son in a family of six born in Andersonstown, Belfast. He was educated at St. Theresa's Primary School and Glen Road Christian Brothers School (CBS). The Doherty brothers were known cyclists and sportsmen in the Andersontown area; Kieran won an Antrim Gaelic football medal at minor level in 1971. Doherty joined