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
The Hunger Strike the second season, McGruder states "I was looking for changes and improvements, and I didn’t see any." referring to BET's programming. He decided to show his frustration using satire in "The Boondocks", reasoning "I didn’t see them. So I said, OK, it’s fair game." The Hunger Strike "The Hunger Strike" is a second-season episode of the Adult Swim animated television series "The Boondocks". It was set to premiere on January 7, 2008, between "The Story of Thugnificent" and "Attack of the Killer Kung-Fu Wolf Bitch", but has not aired in the United States. In Canada, the episode was aired on