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30. Anniversary of the hunger strike of 1981 ..... Our Revenge will be the Laughter of our Children (Bobby Sands) The ten Irish Republican political prisoners Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Patsy O’Hara, Raymond McCreesh, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Tom McElwee and Michael Devine died in the 1981 hungerstrike against the criminalization politics of the British government. British propaganda tried to paint the war in the North of Ireland as a criminal conspiracy by the IRA. But the reality then was internment with its hundreds of political prisoners since 1971, incarcerated without charge or trial. Diplock courts, torture to get signed statements of guilt, long sentences was the British way to replace internment by a tough prison regime in 1976, which tried to treat prisoners of war as ordinary criminals. The resistance of Irish Republican prisoners was met by brute force of the British state. The situation deteriorated until in 1981 ten Irish Republican prisoners died in a hunger strike.