The hunger strikes of 1980-81 were a confrontation between British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the iron will of Irish republican prisoners in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh, in an attempt to break the British policy of criminalising paramilitary prisoners. The prisoners’ ultimate demand, to be granted a ‘special category status’ that distinguished them from other prisoners, led to two hunger strikes. The first, in 1980, ended without success for the prisoners; the second, led by Bobby Sands, resulted in ten prisoners starving themselves to death. The consequences of the hunger strikes changed Irish politics and British-Irish relations forever, beginning the long path to eventual peace with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.