HM Prison Maze However, the government immediately reverted to their previous stance, in the belief that the prisoners would not start another strike. Bobby Sands, the leader of the Provisional IRA prisoners, began a second action on 1 March 1981. Outside the prison, in a major publicity coup, Sands was nominated for Parliament and won the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election. But the British government still resisted and on 5 May, after 66 days on hunger strike, Sands died. More than 100,000 people attended Sands' funeral in Belfast. Another nine hunger strikers (members of both the IRA and the INLA) died by the
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