Hunger strike time, instead of many prisoners striking at the same time, the hunger strikers started fasting one after the other in order to maximise publicity over the fate of each one. Bobby Sands was the first of ten republican paramilitary prisoners to die during a hunger strike in 1981. There was widespread sympathy for the hunger strikers from Irish republicans and the broader nationalist community on both sides of the Irish border. Bobby Sands was elected as an MP to the UK's Houses of Parliament and two other hunger strikers, Paddy Agnew and Kieran Doherty, were elected to Dáil Éireann in
Kevin Lynch (hunger striker) days later. He is commemorated on the Irish Martyrs Memorial at Waverley Cemetery in Sydney, Australia. Kevin Lynch (hunger striker) Kevin Lynch (25 May 1956 – 1 August 1981) was an Irish republican hunger striker and member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) from Park near Dungiven, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The Dungiven hurling team was renamed Kevin Lynch's Hurling Club in his honour after his death. Lynch was the youngest in a family of eight children born to Paddy and Bridie Lynch in Park, north County Londonderry. Lynch's older brother, Frank, was an amateur boxer and he also