In 1845, the Great Famine began, leaving an everlasting mark on the Irish people and the political landscape of their country. The potato crop, which sustained much of Ireland’s population, stopped growing, leading to mass starvation and the death of over a million people. In The Wonder by Emma Donoghue, Anna O’Donnell is born near the end of this national tragedy and survives, but later chooses to starve herself, much to the despair of her nurse Lib. Similarly, the movie Some Mother’s Son depicts Bobby Sands, a member of the IRA, and the other men in his prison block going on a hunger strike due to poor treatment by the British in 1981. The prevalence of hunger strikes post-famine and Anna O’Donnell’s self-imposed fast in Donoghue’s novel demonstrate the
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The 1981 hunger strikes in Maze Prison are an example of the Irish essentially “re-appropriating” hunger through voluntary starvation for political gain instead of suffering due to British neglect. Bobby Sands, the leader of these hunger strikes, believed that he and his fellow compatriots were prisoners of war and deserved more rights while in captivity, such as the ability to wear their own clothes and have visitors. While the concept of hunger strikes has existed for ages and been used by people from Ghandi to Women’s Rights Suffragettes, any issue involving the Irish, British, and starvation invokes memories of the Famine. With the hunger strike, Sands was able to use intentional starving to provoke the sentiment left over from the forced starvation at the hands of the British during the famine for his own political gain. While Sands was not able to convince the British to change their policies before he died, his strike eventually succeeded and his methods provoked an increase in anti-British activity. Additionally, it is relevant that Lib, Anna O’Donnell’s British nurse in The Wonder, has much to eat while in Ireland, but despises both the food and the nation, leading to questions such as, “Wasn’t some
The 1981 hunger strikes in Maze Prison are an example of the Irish essentially “re-appropriating” hunger through voluntary starvation for political gain instead of suffering due to British neglect. Bobby Sands, the leader of these hunger strikes, believed that he and his fellow compatriots were prisoners of war and deserved more rights while in captivity, such as the ability to wear their own clothes and have visitors. While the concept of hunger strikes has existed for ages and been used by people from Ghandi to Women’s Rights Suffragettes, any issue involving the Irish, British, and starvation invokes memories of the Famine. With the hunger strike, Sands was able to use intentional starving to provoke the sentiment left over from the forced starvation at the hands of the British during the famine for his own political gain. While Sands was not able to convince the British to change their policies before he died, his strike eventually succeeded and his methods provoked an increase in anti-British activity. Additionally, it is relevant that Lib, Anna O’Donnell’s British nurse in The Wonder, has much to eat while in Ireland, but despises both the food and the nation, leading to questions such as, “Wasn’t some