In 1981, 10 young men died on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh prison near Belfast. Their protest succeeded in drawing world attention to the plight of more than 500 republican prisoners in Long Kesh and Armagh women"s prison who had been resisting for four-and-a-half years the efforts of the British government to categorise them as common criminals. And at the end of the hunger strike in October, it became clear that they had a least partially succeeded in winning back the "special category status," first won by hunger strike in 1972, and withdrawn in 1976. The prisoners are simply demanding to be treated as what they are-political prisoners.Since 1921, the 800-year Irish freedom struggle has focussed on the gerrymander partition of the country and the institutionalisation of discrimination against the Catholic communities in the north-eastern six counties. The 10 martyrs, and the others who came close to death during the seven-month hunger strike campaign, were following in the proud tradition of past Irish patriots-like Ruairi O"Donovan Rossa, James Connolly, Thomas Ashe, and Terence MacSwiney-who had also resisted the efforts of the British to "criminalise" that freedom struggle.This book is dedicated to the courage of the hunger strikers. Several essays included here draw out the historic significance of their campaign and the mass movement that grew up in support of it.