Profile of Bobby Sands on Famous Like Me

Robert George Sands, commonly known as Bobby Sands (March 9, 1954–May 5, 1981) was a convicted militant Irish republican who died on hunger strike in Long Kesh prison, Northern Ireland.

Bobby Sands was born in Rathcoole, Belfast, Northern Ireland and brought up in Abbots Cross, in north Belfast. His family had to move several times due to the constant intimidation of Catholics by loyalists, although it was not always clear the Sands were Catholics as their last name derived from Bobby's Protestant paternal grandfather. On leaving school, he became an apprentice coach-builder until he was forced out at gunpoint by loyalists. In 1972, the worst year of the Troubles he joined the Provisional Irish Republican Army, but later that year he was interned and remained in custody without trial until 1976.

On his release, he returned to his family in Twinbrook in west Belfast where he became a community activist. He had been out of prison for only a year when he was rearrested. Although the most serious charges against him were dismissed, he was convicted of possession of firearms in September 1977 and sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment.

He served his prison term in one of the wings of the Long Kesh Prison known, from their floor plans, as H-Blocks. In prison, Sands became a writer both of journalism and poetry which was published in the Irish republican newspaper An Phoblacht. In late 1980 Sands was chosen as Officer Commanding IRA prisoners in Long Kesh. He had also become an increasingly zealous Catholic, who one day (according to Irish writer and politician, Conor Cruise O'Brien) was visited by a priest from County Kerry with an icon of Our Lady, which he was told would bring him the strength to free his (Sands') "oppressed people" (in Northern Ireland).

IRA prisoners had organised a series of protests seeking to regain their previous status of political prisoners and not be subject to ordinary prison regulations. This started with the "blanket protest" in 1976, when the prisoners refused to wear uniform and were allowed only blankets instead. The "dirty protest" in 1978 saw prisoners living in squalor by smearing excrement on the walls, as they received severe beatings from the warders when they left their cells to "slop out". There had been an earlier hunger strike in autumn 1980, which had ended when the British government appeared to concede the prisoners' demands. When that strike was over, the government had reverted to its previous hardline stance.

The Second Hunger Strike started with Sands refusing food on 1 March 1981. Sands decided that other prisoners should join the strike at staggered intervals in order to maximise publicity with prisoners steadily deteriorating and dying successively over several months.

Shortly after the beginning of the strike, the independent republican MP for Fermanagh & South Tyrone died and precipitated a by-election. Sands was nominated as an anti-H-Block candidate, and won the seat on April 9, 1981 with 30,492 votes to 29,046 for the Ulster Unionist Party candidate Harry West. The British government changed the law not long afterwards by introducing the Representation of the People Act. This prohibited prisoners from standing in elections, and required a five-year period from the date of conviction to have elapsed before an ex-prisoner could stand.

Three weeks later, Sands died from starvation in the prison hospital. The announcement of his death prompted several days of riots in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. Over 75,000 people lined the route of his funeral. Sands was a Member of the Westminster Parliament for twenty-five days — one of the shortest terms in history. He was survived by his parents, siblings, and a young son from a relationship that took place before his final imprisonment.

Nine other IRA and INLA men who were involved in the Hunger Strike also died after Bobby Sands. Most Irish Republicans and IRA sympathizers regard Bobby Sands and the other nine men as being martyrs who stood firm against the intransigence of the British Government, and many Irish nationalists who abhorred the IRA were outraged at the British government's stance.

The media coverage that surrounded the death of Bobby Sands resulted in a new surge of IRA activity, with the group obtaining many more members and increasing its fundraising capability. Many people felt driven to help break the British connection by helping the IRA, seeing no other option given the intransigence of British politicians' attitudes towards Ireland. The numerous electoral successes during the strike prompted the republican movement to move towards politics, and indirectly paved the way for the Good Friday Agreement and the success of Sinn Féin many years later.

Commemorations in other countries

In Hartford, Connecticut a monument was dedicated to Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers in 1997. The monument stands in a traffic circle known as "Bobby Sands Circle", at the bottom of Maple Avenue near Goodwin Park (link).

The Longshoremen's Union in New York announced a twenty-four-hour boycott of British ships.

The New Jersey State legislature voted 34-29 for a resolution honouring his 'courage and commitment.'

Over 1,000 people gathered in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral to hear Cardinal Cook offer a Mass of reconciliation for Northern Ireland. Irish bars in the city were closed for two hours in mourning.

In 2001 a memorial to Sands and the other hunger strikers was unveiled in Havana, Cuba (link).

In Milan, 5,000 students burned the Union Jack and shouted 'Freedom for Ulster during a march.

In Ghent students invaded the British Consulate.

In Paris, thousands marched behind huge portraits of Sands, to chants of 'The IRA will conquer.'

The town of Le Mans has named a street after Sands.

As has the St Denis département of Paris

The Hong Kong Standard said it was 'sad that successive British governments have failed to end the last of Europe's religious wars.'

The Hindustan Times said Margaret Thatcher had allowed a fellow Member of Parliament to die of starvation, an incident which had never before occurred 'in a civilized country.'

In Oslo, demonstrators threw a balloon filled with tomato sauce at Elizabeth, the Queen of the United Kingdom.

In India, Opposition members of the Upper House stood for a minute's silence in tribute.

In the Soviet Union, Pravda described it as 'another tragic page in the grim chronicle of oppression, discrimination, terror and violence' in Ireland.

At Old Firm football matches in Glasgow, Scotland, Rangers F.C. fans are known to chant Will you have a chicken supper, Bobby Sands?, to annoy Celtic F.C. fans who sympathise with the republican cause.

In Tehran, Iran during the early days of the Islamic revolution in 1979 student revolutionaries sympathizing with Sands replaced the street name on which the British embassy was located on from Winston Churchill street to Bobby Sands street. This name still exists today although efforts are being made by the British government to have it changed.

Reference

• The Northern Ireland Hunger Strike of 1981
• Cumann na Fuiseoige GAA club of Twinbrook

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