Thomas McElwee, a IRA prisoner on hunger strike, died in Maze prison. McElweek was 23 years old and spent 62 days without eating. In 1976, the Thatcher Government seized the political status of the Republican prisoners and the prisoners engaged in several fights, such as the protest of the mantas or the collective hunger strike. That hunger strike was famous in Ireland, and every ten days a prisoner joined indefinite forgiveness. McElwee was the ninth first to die on the Gose collective strike.