The IRA hunger strikes

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes.We hear a survivor's incredible archive account of living through the Siege of Paris in 1870. Sydney Snell was in her 80s when she recorded her memories with the BBC in 1946.Our guest Professor Beatrice Heu ...  Show more

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes.American artist Keith Haring's bold 1986 mural on the Berlin Wall and British naturalist Gerald Durrell's 1950s mission to save species from extinction.We discuss other examples of art which aim to bring pe ...  Show more

In 1981 the British government was faced with prisoners dying on hunger strike in a jail in Northern Ireland. The Irish republican activists were demanding to be treated as political prisoners not criminals. Several of them died during the hunger strike, the first, Bobby Sands on ...  Show more

In the early 1980s, imprisoned IRA members went on a prolonged hunger strike, leading to the death of ten men. This is their story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Margaret talks with writer and podcast host Sarah Marshall about the prisons for "fallen women" around the UK, US & Ireland, and the many people who fought against them, like Sinéad O'Connor.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.