Francis Hughes (Irish: Proinsias Ó hAodha; 28 February 1956 – 12 May 1981) was an Irish volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Hughes was the most wanted man in Northern Ireland until his arrest following a shoot-out with the Special Air Service (SAS) in which an SAS soldier was killed. At his trial he was sentenced to a total of 83 years' imprisonment, and he died during the 1981 Irish hunger strike in HM Prison Maze.

Hughes was born in Bellaghy, County Londonderry on 28 February 1956 into a republican family: the youngest of four brothers in a family of ten siblings. Hughes' father Joseph had been a member of the Irish Republican Army in the 1920s and one of his uncles had smuggled arms for the republican movement. This resulted in the Hughes family being targeted when internment was introduced in 1971, and Hughes' brother Oliver was interned for eight months without trial. Hughes left school aged 16 and started work as an apprentice painter and decorator. Hughes was returning from an evening out in Ardboe, County Tyrone when he was stopped at an Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) checkpoint. When the soldiers realised he came from a republican family, he was badly beaten. Hughes' father encouraged him to see a doctor and report the incident to the police but Hughes refused, saying he "would get his own back on the people who did it, and their friends".

David Rovics (born April 10, 1967) is an American indie singer/songwriter. His music concerns topical subjects such as the 2003 Iraq war, anti-globalization and social justice issues. Rovics has been an outspoken critic of former President George W. Bush, the Republican Party, John Kerry, and the Democratic Party.

Rovics is critical of the United States government's policies and claims that the "U.S. government's foreign policy represents U.S. corporate interests"^{[dead link]} and that "the U.S. government does not like democracy either at home or abroad."^{[dead link]}

Although most of Rovics' work is commercially distributed, Rovics has made all of his recorded music freely available as downloadable mp3 files. He encourages the free distribution of his work by all non-profit means to promote his work and spread political messages, and speaks out against websites or programs like iTunes that charge money for downloading his songs. Rovics has also advocated the performing of his songs at protests and demonstrations and has made his sheet music and lyrics available for download.

Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore (born 7 May 1945) is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is well known as one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts. His first album, Paddy on the Road (a minor release of 500, although made available again on CD through his website and at gigs in 2010) was recorded with Dominic Behan (brother of Brendan) in 1969. In 2007, he was named as Ireland's greatest living musician in RTÉ's People of the Year Awards.

Moore was born in Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. He was originally a bank employee who wanted to express himself using traditional music. A bank strike in 1966, which lasted six months (and effectively paralysed Irish commercial life for the duration), resulted in Moore spending considerable time practising music. When the strike ended, Moore had already decided where his passion in life arose, and left the bank for good.

1972 brought his first major release, Prosperous (named after the village of Prosperous, County Kildare, where the album was recorded), which brought together the four musicians who shortly thereafter formed Planxty: Liam O'Flynn, Andy Irvine, and Dónal Lunny. For a time they called themselves "CLAD", an acronym of their names, but soon decided on Planxty.

Khader Adnan (also Khader Adnan Mohammad Musa) (born 24 March 1978) was a Palestinian prisoner in Israel. Israeli authorities had not laid any formal charges against him, but said he was arrested for "activities that threaten regional security." He was released on 18 April 2012 after being on hunger strike for 66 days.

Adnan is widely reported as being a leader in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the West Bank however his wife says he holds no leadership role in the PIJ, is not involved in militant activities, and is a member of the Palestinian reconciliation committee. The PIJ is designated a terrorist group by a number of Western countries and Israel, and Adnan has been convicted in the past by Israel for being a spokesperson for the group. Though he has been detained several times since 1999, Israel has never charged him with involvement in attacks on Israelis.

He was arrested on 17 December 2011 after midnight. The following day, to protest the conditions of his arrest, Israel's policy of administrative detention and its treatment of Palestinians under Israeli occupation, particularly prisoners, Adnan went on a hunger strike. On 21 Feb 2012 a deal was announced between Adnan and the Israeli authorities whereby they confirmed he would be released on April 17 2012 and he would immediately end his hunger strike, the longest in Palestinian history.