The Blanket Men

About This Book

When the British government removed Special Category Status from republican prisoners in 1976, it ignited one of the most extraordinary acts of resistance in modern history. Young men refused to wear prison uniforms, wrapping themselves in blankets. When that was not enough, they smeared their cell walls with excrement in the dirty protest. And when that too failed to move the British, ten men — led by Bobby Sands — starved themselves to death. This book tells the story through the voices of the families: the mothers who watched their sons waste away, the secret negotiations that might have saved lives, and the political earthquake that followed.

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