ABSTRACT
Academics and activists alike agree that the hunger strikes of 1980 and 1981 heralded a time of great change within Irish Republicanism. Over a five-year period, a solidarity movement in support of protesting republican prisoners was built. Arguably, this movement dwarfed that of the civil rights era, but Republicanism came to it rather reluctantly and initially saw it as a distraction. Still, it was the Republican movement that would benefit most from the wave of activism and mass mobilizations of that tumultuous period. This chapter will highlight some of the Republican movement's initial hesitancy toward what became known as the Anti-H-Block movement. It will also point out how such views quickly changed, bringing about significant shifts in republican thinking which precipitated unexpected and lasting change within the republican movement and on the island of Ireland. In this way, the chapter shows that the prisoners’ support movement accelerated the emergence of the Irish Republican counterpublic in the 1980s.
