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Fri 01 Jan 2009FF government pressurised British to grant special status to republican inmates at the Maze Prison
MAZE PRISON PROTESTS:THE FIANNA Fáil government of the day raised the issue of conditions for republican prisoners at the Maze Prison, Long Kesh, with the British government in late 1978 but State Papers released under the 30-year rule show that no pressure was applied for the restoration of special category status.
The so-called "dirty protest" against the removal of special category or political prisoner status was already under way and would lead to the upheaval of the hunger strike, which in turn precipitated the downfall of the government in the June 1981 general election, by which time Charles Haughey had succeeded Jack Lynch as taoiseach.
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