When Bobby Sands returned to inform the prisoners that the British had granted some of their demands, the wing broke out in cheering. To the prisoners, the end was in sight - they had finally gained some ground.
However, Sands knew that nothing of the sort had happened. He suspected this was a ploy by the government to persuade them into ending the strike before public opinion turned against it. When he was proven right by the government's failure to show good faith in the clothing experiment, he petitioned the IRA to allow him to start a second hunger strike.
After Bobby Sands came Francis Hughes and Raymond McCreesh, also IRA men. They were joined by a fourth man, Patsy O'Hara, a member of the INLA. The prisoners planned this setup and the rest of the structure of the strike themselves without much outside input. Since the demands of the prisoners had not been honored the first time around, the prisoners believed that the authorities likely would not concede this time either. Sands was certain that deaths would be required in order to produce results.
Francis Hughes explained it in this way:
February 7, 1981, the prisoners released a statement that they intended to take up another hunger strike. They blamed the necessity of the second wave of fasting on the broken promises and crookedness of the British. They demanded that they be given a detailed explanation as to why prisoners convicted after March 1, 1976 should be considered to be different in any way from prisoners convicted before that time who had committed the same crimes."The British know that any solution other than outright victory would be a defeat for them. It was in this frame of mind that they masterminded events leading into the new year, and when they foolishly thought they had won the day through their treachery they asked us for a white flag. Our action alone answers their hypocritical request and as before the message is loud and clear. There is no white flag and there shall be no surrender." [Larkspirit]
Sands timed the strike to begin on March 1, the fifth anniversary of the dissolution of political status for the prisoners. Thatcher denounced the strike:
In conjunction with the strike, the other Republican prisoners decided to cease their other protests in order to place emphasis on the important part of what they were seeking, the right to wear civilian clothing and to have the other demands for recreation, association and the like granted. They ended the no-wash and dirty protests, although they stayed 'on the blanket' because they were still being refused their own clothing."Faced with the failure of their discredited cause, the men of violence have chosen to play what may well be their last card ... They have turned their violence against themselves through the prison hunger strike to death. They seek to work on the most basic of human emotions--pity--as a means of creating tension and stroking the fires of bitterness and hatred. " [Larkspirit]
During the strike, Sands was elected to public office. When the Fermanagh-South Tyrone seat on the Westminter Parliament was suddenly freed by the unexpected death Irish nationalist Frank McGuire, Sinn Fein decided to put forth Sands as a candidate. The premise was that his election would help the prisoners by showing that the public supported their cause. It would also keep the strike in the public eye. On April 1981 he was elected Member of Parliament with 30,492 votes.
Although the prisoners had hoped that Sands' election might bring a positive end to their protest, Thatcher was not convinced that because an IRA prisoner was elected to parliament, his fellow prisoners should be counted as political prisoners.
Having started the second strike, Sands was the first to die, barely a month after his successful election to Westminster. However, Sands's death did not bring the concession to demands that he had sought, nor did it buy political status for his fellow prisoners. Thatcher refused to give in. The only immediate result was that 100,000 people attended his funeral, riots occured in the streets, another prisoner stepped up to fill Sands's place, and supporters of the cause both inside and outside were left holding their breath and wondering who would be the next to die and where it might end.
Soon after Hughes' death, Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara both died on May 21.
As Bernadette McAliskey said after the death of Joe McDonnell,
In July and August, those who had replaced the first four hunger strikers died, the second relay in the strike. Joe McDonnell died on July 8th. Martin Hurson was next, on July 13. After a brief pause, Kevin Lynch and Kieran Doherty were next, dying in quick succession on August 1st and 2nd. On August 6th, the prisoners issued another statement stating clearly that they were not "seeking elitist or preferential treatment from other prisoners, nor trying to take over the prison. They declared that they were not making unreasonable demands but merely seeking to highlight the political nature of their struggle. As a show of good faith and flexibility, they conceded that they were willing to perform maintenance and cleaning for their own wings but demanded that they be allowed to self-educate as a form of work. They also emphasized the importance of being allowed to learn Gaelic in order to retain cultural traditions and insisted that they be allowed to conduct classes rather than teaching the language by shouting the lessons through the wings."The five demands of the prisoners were not plucked out of the air, nor are they as some paranoic prime minister may think the first five demands, with more to follow. Together they form the bottom line of the necessary changes within the prison to bring to an end not only the hunger-strike, the blanket protest, but the underlying everyday conflict which produced both. It is only on the basis of these five demands that a solution which will last can be found--a solution which prevents the emergence of further protracted protest."
Tom McElwee died on August 8. On August 20th, Micky Devine died, bringing the final total of the dead to ten men. Throughout the strike, the British never budged an inch and never made the slightest concession to the five demands. With ten men dead and still no end in sight, Catholic priests and bishops were pressuring the IRA and the families of the remaining strikers to take their sons off the strike. Finally, several of the prisoners were taken off strike by their families. Because this was evidence that the strike was beginning to disintegrate, finally the decision was made to call off the hunger strike.
With no concession from the British and no sign that they would ever concede, with the total of dead men far higher than the initial three or four that the prisoners had expected, and with the families of the strikers moving to take their sons off strike, finally the strike was called to a halt on October 3.