In this article in the academic journal Etudes Irlandaises, Karine Deslandes, says that it was the hungers strikes that were the most closely followed Troubles-related news story in France during the whole of the Troubles.
A photograph from Libération of the blanket protest by republican inmates in Long Kesh prison.
The hunger strike has been used as a means of protest in Ireland since pre-Christian times, but it came to international attention in the early part of the twentieth-century with the hunger strikes of Thomas Ashe and Terrence MacSwiney in 1917 and 1920 respectively.
The French left-leaning daily newspaper, Libération, followed the story of the Troubles very closely. The journalist, Sorj Chalandon (who had been writing about Ireland since the 1970s), wrote hundreds of articles from and about Ireland during this time. This includes reportage articles, news stories and opinion pieces.
Bobby Sands died on 5 May 1981 after sixty-six days on hunger strike. His funeral on 7 May 1981 was an international media event. It was covered by camera crews from twenty-three nations and four-hundred reporters were said to be present. This is a news report from the Irish state broadcaster RTE on the funeral.
Libération was not being printed between 23 February 1981 and 11 May 1981 due to industrial relations issues. However, when it started up again, Chalandon made sure to mark Sands' death and funeral with a three page spread on the story. Chalandon later said that the hunger strike greatly influenced his thinking and his relationship with Ireland. He said that it led him from being a "passer by" to someone who "belonged in this street".
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