Mairead Farrell: IRA Member, Female Prisoner/Hunger Striker and the Treatment of Women Prisoners in Armagh Jail

Hunger strikes have a long history in Irish culture. The Celts would starve themselves to disgrace someone who wronged them, and the starvation would go on until the situation/situations were made right. It was a way of "self-sacrifice" to the Catholics. If a hunger striker died, the person or people who caused the strike would suffer socially and have to pay costs to that striker's family (http://irelandsown.net/armaghwomen.html). In 1980-81, the …

…strikes/chapter14.html. Mairead Farrell. Retrieved from www.geocities.com/pettigolass/farrell.html. Maireed Farrell- Irish Rebel. Retrieved from freespace.virgin.net/sean.Farrell/maread_Farrell.htm. Mairead Farrell. Retrieved from http://members.lycos.co.uk/inac/farrell.html. Irish Hunger Strikes Chapter 49. Retrieved from inac.org/irishhistory/hunger strikes/chapters/49. Other websites used for information: www.angelfire.com/sc/johnfhome/hunger.htnl www.guardian.co.uk/gender/story www.webster.edu/~woolflm/ireland.html