Bobby Sands
Bobby Sands Long Kesh, 1973 (aged 18–19) | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Fermanagh and South Tyrone | |
In office 9 April 1981[1] – 5 May 1981 | |
Preceded by | Frank Maguire |
Succeeded by | Owen Carron |
Majority | 1,447 (2.4%) |
Personal details | |
Born | Dunmurry, County Antrim, Northern Ireland | 9 March 1954
Died | 5 May 1981 HM Prison Maze, County Down, Northern Ireland | (aged 27)
Cause of death | Hunger strike |
Political party | Anti H-Block |
Spouse |
Geraldine Noade (m. 1973) |
Children | 1 |
Relatives | Bernadette Sands McKevitt (sister) |
Website | Bobby Sands Trust |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Provisional Irish Republican Army |
Years of service | 1972–1981 |
Unit | First Battalion South West Belfast, Belfast Brigade |
Battles/wars | The Troubles |
Robert Gerard Sands (Irish: Roibeárd Gearóid Ó Seachnasaigh;[2] 9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981) was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland. Sands helped to plan the 1976 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing in Dunmurry, which was followed by a gun battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Sands was arrested while trying to escape and sentenced to 14 years for firearms possession.
He was the leader of the
Early life
Sands was born in Dunmurry in 1954 to John and Rosaleen Sands.[6] After marrying, they relocated to the new development of Abbots Cross, Newtownabbey, County Antrim, outside North Belfast.[7] Sands was the eldest of four children. His younger sisters, Marcella and Bernadette, were born in 1955 and 1958, respectively.[8] He also had a younger brother, John, born in 1962.[9]
In 1961, after experiencing harassment and intimidation from their neighbours, the family abandoned the development and moved in with friends for six months before being granted housing in the nearby Rathcoole development.[10] Rathcoole was 30% Catholic and featured Catholic schools as well as a nominally Catholic, but religiously mixed, youth football club, an unusual circumstance in Northern Ireland, known as Stella Maris, the same as the school Sands attended and where the training was held. Sands was a member of this club and played left-back.[11][12] There was another youth club in nearby Greencastle called Star of the Sea and many boys went there when the Stella Maris club closed.
By 1966, sectarian violence in Rathcoole, along with the rest of the Belfast metropolitan area, had considerably worsened, and the minority Catholic population there found itself under siege. Despite always having had Protestant friends, Sands suddenly found that none of them would even speak to him, and he quickly learned to associate only with Catholics.[13]
He left school in 1969 at age 15, and enrolled in Newtownabbey Technical College, beginning an apprenticeship as a
Sands soon recruited some of his mates into a small auxiliary unit of about six or seven volunteers. Bobby was their section leader. They were isolated, so they worked with other volunteers from surrounding areas.[17]
In June 1972, Sands's parents' home was attacked and damaged by a loyalist mob and they were again forced to move, this time to the West Belfast Catholic area of
Provisional IRA activity
Sands was arrested and charged in October 1972 with possession of four handguns found in the house where he was staying. He was convicted in April 1973, sentenced to five years imprisonment, and released in April 1976.[19][20]
Upon his release, he returned to his family home in West Belfast, and resumed his active role in the Provisional IRA. Sands and Joe McDonnell planned the bombing of the Balmoral Furniture Company in Dunmurry on 14 October 1976.[21] The showroom was destroyed but as the IRA men left the scene there was a gun battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Leaving behind two wounded, Seamus Martin and Gabriel Corbett, the remaining four (Sands, McDonnell, Seamus Finucane, and Sean Lavery) tried to escape by car, but were arrested. One of the revolvers used in the attack was found in the car. On 7 September 1977, the four men were sentenced to 14 years for possession of the revolver. They were not charged with explosive offences.[22][23]
Immediately after his sentencing, Sands was implicated in a fight and sent to the punishment block in
Maze Prison years
In late 1980, Sands was chosen
Published works
While in prison, Sands had several letters and articles published in the Republican paper An Phoblacht under the pseudonym "Marcella" (his sister's name). Other writings attributed to him are: Skylark Sing Your Lonely Song (1989)[27] and One Day in My Life (1983).[28] Sands also wrote the lyrics of "Back Home in Derry" and "McIlhatton", which were both later recorded by Christy Moore, and "Sad Song for Susan", which was also later recorded. The melody of "Back Home in Derry" was borrowed from Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".[29] The song itself is about the penal transportation of Irishmen in the 19th century to Van Diemen's Land (modern day Tasmania, Australia).
Hunger strike
The 1981 Irish hunger strike started with Sands refusing food on 1 March 1981. Sands decided that other prisoners should join the strike at staggered intervals to maximise publicity, with prisoners steadily deteriorating successively over several months. The hunger strike centred on five demands:
- the right not to wear a prison uniform;
- the right not to do prison work;
- the right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits;
- the right to one visit, one letter, and one parcel per week;
- full restoration of remission lost through the protest.[30]
The significance of the hunger strike was the prisoners' aim of being considered political prisoners as opposed to criminals. Shortly before Sands's death, The Washington Post reported that the primary aim of the hunger strike was to generate international publicity.[31]
Member of Parliament
Shortly after the beginning of the strike, Frank Maguire, the Independent Republican Member of Parliament (MP) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, died suddenly of a heart attack, precipitating the April 1981 by-election.[32] The sudden vacancy in a seat with a nationalist majority of about 5,000 was a valuable opportunity for Sands's supporters "to raise public consciousness".[33] Pressure not to split the vote led other nationalist parties, notably the Social Democratic and Labour Party, to withdraw, and Sands was nominated on the label "Anti H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner". After a highly polarised campaign, Sands narrowly won the seat on 9 April 1981, with 30,493 votes to 29,046 for the Ulster Unionist Party candidate Harry West. Sands became the youngest MP at the time.[34] Sands died in prison less than a month later, without ever having taken his seat in the Commons.
Following Sands's election win, the British government introduced the Representation of the People Act 1981 which prevents prisoners serving jail terms of more than one year in either the UK or the Republic of Ireland from being nominated as candidates in British elections.[35][36] The enactment of the law, as a response to the election of Sands, consequently prevented other hunger strikers from being elected to the House of Commons.[37]
Death
Sands died on 5 May 1981 in the Maze's prison hospital after 66 days on hunger strike, aged 27.
Sands became a martyr to Irish republicans,[41] and the announcement of his death prompted several days of rioting in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. More than 100,000 people lined the route of Sands's funeral, and he was buried in the 'New Republican Plot' alongside 76 others. Their graves are maintained by the National Graves Association, Belfast.[42]
Reactions
Britain
In response to a question in the
Cardinal Basil Hume, head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, condemned Sands, describing the hunger strike as a form of violence. However, he noted that this was his personal view. The Roman Catholic Church's official stance was that ministrations should be provided to the hunger strikers who, believing their sacrifice to be for a higher good, were acting in good conscience.[44]
At
Europe
In Europe, there were widespread protests after Sands's death. 5,000
In the
The Americas
A number of political, religious, union and fund-raising institutions chose to honour Sands in the United States. The
The New Jersey General Assembly, the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature, voted 34–29 for a resolution honouring his "courage and commitment."[52]
The American media expressed a range of opinions on Sands's death. The Boston Globe commented, a few days before Sands's death, that "[t]he slow suicide attempt of Bobby Sands has cast his land and his cause into another downward spiral of death and despair. There are no heroes in the saga of Bobby Sands".[53] The Chicago Tribune wrote that "Mahatma Gandhi used the hunger strike to move his countrymen to abstain from fratricide. Bobby Sands's deliberate slow suicide is intended to precipitate civil war. The former deserved veneration and influence. The latter would be viewed, in a reasonable world, not as a charismatic martyr but as a fanatical suicide, whose regrettable death provides no sufficient occasion for killing others".[54]
In an editorial, The New York Times wrote that "Britain's prime minister Thatcher is right in refusing to yield political status to Bobby Sands, the Irish Republican Army hunger striker", but added that by appearing "unfeeling and unresponsive" the British Government was giving Sands "the crown of martyrdom".[55] The San Francisco Chronicle argued that political belief should not exempt activists from criminal law:
Terrorism goes far beyond the expression of political belief. And dealing with it does not allow for compromise as many countries of Western Europe and United States have learned. The bombing of bars, hotels, restaurants, robbing of banks, abductions, and killings of prominent figures are all criminal acts and must be dealt with by criminal law.[56]
Some American critics and journalists suggested that American press coverage was a "melodrama".[57] Edward Langley of The Pittsburgh Press criticised the large pro-IRA Irish-American contingent which "swallow IRA propaganda as if it were taffy", and concluded that IRA "terrorist propaganda triumphs."[58]
In
In 2001, a memorial to Sands and the other hunger strikers was unveiled in Havana, Cuba.[61]
Asia
- In Tehran, Iran, President Abolhassan Banisadr sent a message of condolence to the Sands family.[62]
The Iranian government renamed Winston Churchill Boulevard, the location of the
- Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in the Israeli desert prison of Nafha sent a letter, which was smuggled out and reached Belfast in July 1981, which read: "To the families of Bobby Sands and his martyred comrades. We, revolutionaries of the Palestinian people...extend our salutes and solidarity with you in the confrontation against the oppressive terrorist rule enforced upon the Irish people by the British ruling elite. We salute the heroic struggle of Bobby Sands and his comrades, for they have sacrificed the most valuable possession of any human being. They gave their lives for freedom."[68]
- 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 civilised country".[47]
- In the Indian Parliament, opposition members in the upper house Rajya Sabha stood for a minute's silence in tribute. The ruling Congress Party did not participate.[47] Protest marches were organised against the British government and in tribute to Sands and his fellow hunger strikers.[69]
- In Hong Kong, the Standard said it was "sad that successive British governments have failed to end the last of Europe's religious wars".[47]
Political impact
Nine other IRA and Irish National Liberation Army members who were involved in the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike died after Sands. On the day of Sands's funeral, Unionist leader Ian Paisley held a memorial service outside Belfast City Hall to commemorate the victims of the IRA.[51] In the Irish general election held the same year, two anti H-block candidates won seats on an abstentionist basis.
The death of Sands resulted in a new surge of IRA activity and an immediate escalation in the Troubles, with the group obtaining many more members and increasing its fund-raising capability. Both nationalists and unionists began to harden their attitudes and move towards political extremes.[70] Sands's Westminster seat was taken by his election agent, Owen Carron, standing as 'Anti H-Block Proxy Political Prisoner' with an increased majority.[71] Shortly after Sands's death, the Representation of the People Act 1981 was passed through parliament. As a result of the Act, other prisoners on hunger strike were unable to stand in the second 1981 by-election in Fermanagh and South Tyrone.[citation needed]
In popular culture
Songs written in response to the hunger strikes and Sands's death include songs by
Celtic F.C., a Scottish football club, received a €50,000 fine from UEFA over banners depicting Sands with a political message, which were displayed during a game on 26 November 2013[75] by Green Brigade fans.[76]
Bobby Sands has been portrayed in the following films:
- Sands was played by John Lynch in the 1996 film Some Mother's Son. It was directed by Terry George and written by George and Jim Sheridan.[77]
- Sands was played by Mark O'Halloran in the 2001 film H3.[78]
- Michael Fassbender played Sands in Hunger, a 2008 film by Steve McQueen about the last six weeks of Sands's life in the context of the 1981 Irish hunger strike. It premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival[79] and won McQueen the prestigious Caméra d'Or award for first-time filmmakers.[80] It was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK for the first time on 15 December 2009.[81]
- The 2016 documentary film Bobby Sands: 66 Days.
Family
Sands married Geraldine Noade while in prison on robbery charges on 3 March 1973. His son, Gerard, was born 8 May 1973.[82] Noade soon left with Gerard to live in England.[83]
Sands's sister,
His granddaughter, Erin, played for the County Down team which won the All-Ireland Junior Ladies' Football Championship in 2023.[86]
See also
- List of United Kingdom MPs with the shortest service
- Brixton Prisonafter a hunger strike lasting 74 days.
References
- ^ "1981: Hunger striker elected MP". BBC On This Day – 10 April. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
- ^ "Legacy of Cage Eleven". Nuzhound.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- ^ "Hunger Strike 1980–82". BBC News. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- ^ "CAIN: Politics: Elections: Westminster By-election (NI) Thursday 9 April 1981". CAIN/Ulster University. 9 April 1981. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- ^ Beresford 1987, pp. 131–132.
- ^ O'Hearn 2006, pp. 2–3.
- ^ O'Hearn 2006, p. 2.
- ^ O'Hearn 2006, p. 3.
- ^ Feehan 1985, p. 58.
- ^ Feehan 1985, p. 59.
- ^ O'Hearn 2006, pp. 5–6.
- ^ Donegan, Lawrence (23 November 1999). "Never mind poor old Evita, cry for Star of the Sea". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
- ^ O'Hearn 2006, pp. 6–8.
- ^ O'Hearn 2006, p. 12.
- ^ Feehan, Bobby Sands and the Tragedy of Northern Ireland, pp. 13–14
- ^ O'Hearn 2006, p. 19.
- ^ O'Hearn 2006, p. 20.
- ^ O'Hearn 2006, p. 24.
- ^ Morrison, Biography, cain.ulst.ac.uk; accessed 20 October 2015.
- ISBN 978-3-640-85967-2. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
- ISBN 978-90-8728-240-0. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
- ^ English 2003, pp. 196–197.
- ISBN 978-1-4472-1748-0. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
- ^ O'Hearn 2006, pp. 158–163.
- ^ Taylo, Provos, The IRA and Sinn Féin, pp. 251–52
- ISBN 1-85635-349-4
- ISBN 0-85342-726-7
- ISBN 1-85635-349-4
- ^ "Back Home in Derry – Christy Moore". ChristyMoore.com. 17 February 2012. Retrieved 24 June 2017.
- ^ ON THIS DAY 1981: Violence erupts at Irish hunger strike protest, BBC News
- ^ Washington Post, 3 May 1981, pp. 2–3.
- ^ "Frank Maguire, Ulster M.P., Dies; Helped Defeat Callaghan in 1979". The New York Times. Vol. CXXX, no. 44, 879. Associated Press. 6 March 1981. p. A16. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
- ^ Beresford 1987, p. 97.
- ^ BBC News,1981: Hunger striker elected MP (April 1981)
- ^ Julian Haviland, "Bill to stop criminal candidates", The Times, 13 June 1981, p. 2.
- ^ Disqualification for membership of the House of
Commons,"Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original on 21 March 2006. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) (October 2004). - ^ Carol, Constitutional and administrative law, p. 112
- ^ Bobby Sands profile, cain.ulst.ac.uk; accessed 20 November 2015.
- ^ "Roll of Honor/Hunger 6 May 2021". 6 May 2014. at republicansinnfein.org
- ISBN 978-1-84018-862-2.
- ^ "University of Ulster CAIN archive". Cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- ^ "1981 5 May, Margaret Thatcher House of Commons PQs". Margaret Thatcher Foundation. Retrieved 26 May 2007.
- ^ a b c Bradley, Jeff (5 May 1981). "To some he was a hero, to others a terrorist". The Ledger. Vol. 75, no. 195. Lakeland, Florida. Associated Press. p. 12A. Retrieved 8 April 2022 – via Google News.
- ^ Tom Shields (23 February 2003). "Pitch Battles; What can an English public school-type tell us about". Sunday Herald. Herald and Times Group. Archived from the original on 23 December 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2007 – via FindArticles.
- ISBN 0-7456-2482-0
- ^ a b c d e f g h Beresford 1987, p. 132.
- ^ Bergkvist, Johanne (29 April 2021). "Engelsk dronningbesøk på sultestreikers dødsdag". Dagsavisen (in Norwegian). Retrieved 18 March 2022.
- ^ Feehan 1985, p. 21.
- ^ Colin Randall (13 August 2004). "French intelligentsia ponders what should be done with killer". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 25 May 2007.
- ^ a b Russell, George; Angela, Bonnie; Amfitheatrof, Erik (18 May 1981). "Shadow Of a Gunman". Time. Vol. 117, no. 20. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
- ^ a b Beresford 1987, p. 131.
- ^ "The Saga of Bobby Sands", Boston Globe, 3 May 1981.
- ^ "Bobby Sands and Mahatma Gandhi", Chicago Tribune, 28 April 1981
- ^ "Britain's Gift to Bobby Sands". The New York Times. Vol. CXXX, no. 44, 933. 29 April 1981. p. A26. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
- ^ "The Death of Bobby Sands", San Francisco Chronicle, 6 May 1981
- ^ "Sands' hunger strike and the fate of Ulster" Boston Globe, 1 May 1981, p. 9
- ^ Edward Langley, "IRA brutalities, Terrorist propaganda triumphs", Chicago Tribune, 9 May 1981, W1-8-4
- ^ "Leaders call Sands' death useless". The Ledger. Vol. 75, no. 206. Lakeland, Florida. Associated Press. 16 May 1981. p. 11A. Retrieved 8 April 2022 – via Google News.
- ^ "Hunger Strikers Memorial, Hartford, CT". Irish Northern Aid Committee. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- ^ "Adams unveils Cuba memorial to Bobby Sands". BreakingNews.ie. 18 December 2001. Retrieved 25 May 2007.
- ^ a b c The Times, 11 June 1981.
- ^ O'Hearn 2006, p. 377.
- ^ Majd, Hooman. The Ayatollah Begs to Differ. Doubleday. 2008, pp. 244–45.
- ^ Irlandinit-hd.de Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, British government pressure Ireland to change the name of Bobby Sands Street
- ^ "Irish republicans say Bobby Sands Street in Tehran should stay". larkspirit.com. 23 January 2004. Archived from the original on 30 March 2008. Retrieved 8 January 2007.
- ^ Costello, Norma (3 October 2014). "Iran burger bar named after Bobby Sands". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
- ^ Wight, John (5 April 2012). "Over Three Decades On The Death Of Bobby Sands Still Resonates". Huffpost. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
- ^ "Over Three Decades on the Death of Bobby Sands Still Resonates". The Huffington Post UK. 4 May 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
- ^ W.D. Flackes and Sydney Elliott, "Northern Ireland: A Political Directory" (Blackstaff Press, Belfast, 1999), at p. 550, notes that at the 1981 District Council elections on 20 May 1981, "the results showed a decline in support for centre parties".
- ^ Nicholas Whyte. "Ark Election website". Ark.ac.uk. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- ^ A Long Strange Trip by Dennis McNally, p. 542
- ISBN 0-415-22396-2
- ^ Rage Against the Machine: Articles Archived 18 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine, ratm.net; accessed 20 November 2015.
- ^ "Celtic fined €50k for Bobby Sands banner". Archived from the original on 21 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
Celtic Football Club has been fined €50,000 over a banner depicting IRA hunger-striker Bobby Sands
- ^ "Celtic Green Brigade's Bobby Sands Banner – Is It Offensive? (POLL)". 29 November 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
The Green Brigade supporters displayed a banner of Sands alongside Scottish warrior William Wallace, in an effort to highlight hypocrisy of the Scottish government, which has jailed Celtic fans for singing Republican songs in commemoration of Sands.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (27 December 1996). "Some Mother's Son". Archived from the original on 3 December 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "H3". 1 October 2001 – via IMDb.
- ^ Thorpe, Vanessa (11 May 2008). "Anger as new film of IRA hero Bobby Sands screens at Cannes". The Observer. London, UK. Retrieved 14 May 2008.
- ^ Bobby Sands film wins Cannes award. Available on RTE.ie. Retrieved 26 May 2008.
- ^ "Bobby Sands story to become movie". BBC. 16 May 2007. Retrieved 25 May 2007.
- ^ O'Hearn 2006, pp. 49, 51.
- ^ Kennedy, Carol (18 May 1981). "Making of a martyr". Maclean's. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
- ISBN 978-1785370939.
- ^ English 2003, pp. 316–17.
- ^ "Erin Sands - Granddaughter of Bobby Sands - Wins Junior All-Ireland with Down". 15 August 2023.
Works cited
- Beresford, David (1987). Ten men dead : the story of the 1981 Irish hunger strike. London: Grafton Books. ISBN 0586065334. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
- English, Richard (2003). Armed struggle: the history of the IRA. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195166051. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
- Feehan, John (1985). Bobby Sands and the tragedy of Northern Ireland. Sag Harbor, NY: Permanent Press. ISBN 0932966632. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
- O'Hearn, Denis (2006). Nothing but an unfinished song : Bobby Sands, the Irish hunger striker who ignited a generation. New York: Nation Books. ISBN 978-1560258421. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
External links
- Bobby Sands Trust official website, contains poetry and writings by Sands
- Biography from Irish Republican website at the Wayback Machine (archived 31 July 2008)
- Bobby Sands diary entries & biographies of the ten hunger strikers
- Timewatch: Hunger Strike – a Hidden History (Otmoor Productions/BBC 1993), imdb.com
- "The Diary of Bobby Sands". Archived from the original on 2 April 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) Secret diary written during the first seventeen days of his hunger strike, before being moved to the prison hospital.