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Bobby Sands

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


Family and early life

A mural depicting Bobby Sands, on the gable wall of the Sinn Féin headquarters on the Falls Road, Belfast.

Bobby Sands was born in Rathcoole, Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland and brought up in Abbots Cross, Newtownabbey. His family moved several times due to constant intimidation of Catholics by loyalists, although it was not always clear the Sands were Catholics as their last name derived from his paternal grandfather who was a Protestant. On leaving school, he became an apprentice coach-builder, until he was forced out at gunpoint by loyalists.

IRA Volunteer

In 1972, the year of the Troubles with the highest death toll, he joined the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Later that year he was interned, and remained in custody without trial until 1976.

On his release, he returned to his family who were then living in Twinbrook in west Belfast. Sands returned to IRA active service. He had been out of prison for only a year when he was arrested with four others; the five were in a car containing a handgun. His trial (in September 1977) saw him accused of organising a bombing which had happened nearby, but these and other serious charges against him were dismissed for lack of evidence. He was convicted of possession of firearms (the handgun) and sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment.

Prisoner

He served his prison term in one of the wings of what the British government regarded as HM Prison Maze but which Irish republicans continued to know as Long Kesh. Since the end of internment a series of buildings known from their floor plans as 'H-Blocks' had been built to make the prison suitable for the large number of inmates belonging to paramilitary organisations; each block contained members of the same organisation.

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. According to the writer and politician Conor Cruise O'Brien (who was a strong supporter of Irish unionism), Sands became a zealous Catholic, who one day 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).

Political status protests

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 insteadThe "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.

Hunger strike

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.

Election

Shortly after the beginning of the strike, the independent republican MP for Fermanagh & South Tyrone died and precipitated a by-election. The sudden vacancy in a seat with a small Catholic majority was a valuable opportunity for Sands' supporters to unite the nationalist community behind their campaign. Pressure not to split the vote led other nationalist parties, notably the Social Democratic and Labour Party, to withdraw and Sands was nominated with the description "Anti H-Block / Armagh Political Prisoner".

After a highly polarised campaign, Sands 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 amending the Representation of the People Act. This amendment 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.

Death

Three weeks later, Sands died from starvation in the prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking. The announcement of his death prompted several days of riots in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. Over 100,000[1] 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 (Gerard) from his marriage to Geraldine.

Political impact

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, marxists 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.

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.

From Australia, Eric Bogle's 2000 album Endangered Species includes a song titled The Sign which describes his thoughts on seeing a "Free Bobby Sands" graffiti in Christchurch, New Zealand several years earlier.

Reference

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