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
Hunger Strike (song) Stone" said, "Cornell and Vedder . . . turn its four minutes into a veritable opera of rock-star guilt. . . . Cornell turns on the Robert Plant-style napalm full blast, but it is Vedder's scorched introspection that brings the conscience in the song to a full boil. 'Hunger Strike' was his first starring vocal on record; it is still one of his best." The original music video for "Hunger Strike" was directed by Paul Rachman who also directed the 2006 punk documentary "American Hardcore". A&M decided to reissue the album and promote "Hunger Strike" as a single, with an