October 3, 1981
A hunger strike by Irish nationalists at the Maze Prison in Belfast in Northern Ireland was called off after seven months and 10 deaths. The first to die was Bobby Sands, the imprisoned Irish Republican Army (IRA) leader who initiated the protest on March 1, 1981—the fifth anniversary of the British policy of “criminalization” of Irish political prisoners. The prison was closed in 2000 and demolition began in 2006; in 2013 it was announced by the Northern Ireland Executive that the remaining buildings would be redeveloped into a peace center.
