Republicans in Northern Ireland today lit candles to mark the 25th anniversary of the Maze Prison hunger strike.
IRA and INLA men in the top security Co Antrim jail began a fast in March 1981 and by the time it was called off in October ten had starved themselves to death.
To mark the anniversary of the start of the hunger strike candles have been lit and placed in the front windows of republican homes across Northern Ireland.
Bic McFarlane, one time IRA Officer Commanding in the Maze, said the commemorative candle was an initiative aimed at remembering in a small way the sacrifices of the 10 men who died. He said it was also a way of showing continuing solidarity with their families, 25 years on from the events of 1981.
"We choose Mothers' Day as the day when we are asking people to place the candle in the window of their homes as a particular tribute to the immediate families of those who died and as a tribute to the courage they displayed throughout those long and difficult months from March to October 1981."
The first to die was Bobby Sands who began the fast and was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone the following month in a by election.
His death on May 5th 1981 after 66 days without food was followed by the biggest funeral ever seen in Northern Ireland - an estimated 700,000 lining the route to Milltown Cemetery in west Belfast.
The fast was a battle of will between republicans and the British government of Margaret Thatcher. They wanted political status - in essence Prisoner of War status - in the jail.
Their five demands were to be allowed to wear their own clothes, given the right not to do prison work, freedom of association, extra recreation facilities, more letters and visits and restoration of remission lost in previous protests.
The British government refused, but what the men wanted was essentially phased in quietly in the months after the hunger strike was called off.