Ireland's OWN: Hungerstrikes The Practice of Hungerstriking —by Míchealín Dhochartaigh and T O Hara The practice of hungerstriking has deep roots in Irish culture. The Celts under the Brehon Laws would use self-inflicted starvation as a means of discrediting someone who had done them wrong, as would unpaid poets or tradespeople who would camp outside the home of an uncaring patron and begin a hunger striking ritual until their wrongs were righted or their debts paid. To fast on or against a person was called ‘Troscad’; and to fast to achieve justice was called ‘Senchus Mor’. If the striker died, the accused would suffer societal ostracism and would have to pay compensation to the dead person's family.  Hungerstriking can be found in literature as well. For example, in The King’s Threshold, William Butler Yeats portrays the poet on political hungerstrike against a king who takes away poets’ rights to sit on the king’s council.  And the tradition found its way in to Catholicism, and was made especially significant when taken into context with the Catholic credo of self-sacrifice as a means of self purification that added power to one's prayers.  Legend even has it that St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, fasted against God when he was told by an Angel at the Holy Mount that he had asked for too much! Hungerstrike has also been used against the Devil in Irish lore. King Connall the Red is said to have embarked on hungerstrike, along with his wife, against the Devil in order to have children. In the 20th Century a large number of Hungerstrike protests occurred worldwide. In Germany by the Baeder-Meinhoff, and more recently in Turkey. But most of them were against the British Government: by the Suffragettes in the early 1900s; by Mahatma Ghandi and his followers in India (Ghandi went on 17 hungerstrikes during his life against the British Raj); and in Ireland where 22 men died between 1917 and 1981 in protests related to the struggle for Irish Freedom, including:. Thomas Ashe, 1917 Michael Fitzgerald, 1917 Terence Mac Sweeney 1920 Joseph Murphy, 1923 Joseph Witty, 1923 Denis Barry, 1923 Andrew Sullivan, 1923 Tony D'Arcy, 1940 Jack Mc Neela, 1940 Sean Mc Caughey, 1946 Michael Gaughan, 1974 Frank Stagg, 1976 Bobby Sands MP, 1981  Frances Hughes, 1981  Patsy O Hara, 1981  Ray McCreesh, 1981  Joe McDonnell, 1981  Martin Hurson, 1981 Kevin Lynch, 1981  Kierán Doherty TD, 1981  Thomas McElwee, 1981  Mickey Devine, 1981 Page last updated 10 Feb 2008 Ireland's OWN Logo & Irish Hungerstrike Background by Míchealín Daugherty Copyright © 2008 Ireland's OWN. All Rights Reserved.