The practice of fasting or hunger striking has deep roots in Irish history and culture. Under ancient 'Brehon' laws, everyone had the right to discredit a fellow citizen, who done them an injustice - through starvation. Thus, the Plaintiff was permitted to camp outside the home of the Defendant on hunger-strike. Until, such times as he/she had their wrongs righted or recieve justice.

The Irish/Gaelic words, 'Troscad' and 'Cealcha' appear in some of the earliest legal records, particularly in the 'Senchus Mhor' or 'Legal Code'. Roughly translated into English, they mean; 'Fasting on or against a person' or ' achieving justice by starvation'.

If the Plaintiff died during the fast, the Defendant was legally and morally responsible for the death. As a legal penalty, the Defendant was required to pay compensation to the dead person's family. The moral aspect, for allowing a hunger-striker to die outside one's home, was a profound disgrace to the local and wider community. Therefore, the Defendant would be forced from his/her locality and endure societal ostracism, wherever he/she travelled for the remainder of his/her own life.

In modern Ireland, hunger striking became a weapon of last resort by Republican Prisoners, to achieve Political Status.  The first such strike was by prominent Socialist, James Connolly, who was incarcerated during the 1913, Dublin Lock-Out. Despite Connolly's fast being succesful, a more tragic strike took place five years later. When President of the I.R.B. (Irish Republican Brotherhood), Thomas Ashe was imprisoned for a, 'Sedious Speech'. After his arrival in Mounjoy Gaol, Ashe demanded to be afforded political treatment, but the authorities refused. Ashe responded by embarking on a lengthy and agonising Hunger-Strike. During which, he was forcefed. A brutal and experiental process, were he was tied down and had tubes forced down his throat.

During one particular experient, a tube punchured one of his lungs and Oglach. Thomas Ashe died soon afterwards. Upwards of forty thousand people attended his funeral to Glasnevin Cemetary, where his successor, Micheal Collins delivered the graveside oration. After a volley of shots was fired over his coffin, Collins' declared; 'What you just heard, is the only honour to be paid at the graveside of a dead Fenian'.