Hunger (2008 film) for eight awards at the 2009 IFTAs, winning six at the event. The film stars Fassbender as Bobby Sands, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer and MP who led the second IRA hunger strike and participated in the no wash protest (led by Brendan "The Dark" Hughes) in which Irish republican prisoners tried to regain political status after it had been revoked by the British government in 1976. It outlines events in the Maze Prison in the period leading up to the hunger strike and its aftermath. Prison officer Raymond Lohan prepares to leave work; he cleans his bloodied
Joe McDonnell (hunger striker) Joe McDonnell (hunger striker) Joseph (Joe) McDonnell (14 September 1951 – 8 July 1981) was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who died in the 1981 Irish hunger strike. McDonnell was born on Slate Street in the lower Falls Road of Belfast as one of 10 children. He attended a nearby Roman Catholic school. He married Goretti in 1970, and moved into her sister's house in Lenadoon. There were only two Catholic houses in this predominantly Ulster Protestant housing estate, and their house was attacked on numerous occasions. McDonnell was arrested in Operation Demetrius, and along with