Hunger strike in H-Block: the disavowal of passivity

Abstract

The hunger strikes in prison in Northern Ireland took place forty years ago. Since then, much has changed in the politics of Northern Ireland. The hunger strikes of 1980 and 1981 were formative in the progress from violence, and the use of the body as a weapon, to inclusion and participation in democratic political institutions. This article, first published, in longer form, twenty years ago (Maynes, 2000) places the hunger strikes within a psychoanalytic understanding in order to more fully understand some of the dynamics of violence towards others and towards the self.