Overview: In April 1981, Bobby Sands, an IRA prisoner on hunger strike, won a seat at Westminster, inadvertently starting the endgame in Northern Ireland. Galvanised by this success, Sinn Fein's leader, Gerry Adams, was elected to Parliament in 1983, alarming Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald, who eventually persuaded Mrs Thatcher to sanction the Anglo-Irish agreement by giving Dublin a small say in running Northern Ireland.