Bobby Sands

Robert Gerard Sands (Template:Lang-ga), commonly known as Bobby Sands (9 March, 1954 – 5 May, 1981), was an Irish Provisional IRA member who died on hunger strike whilst in prison for the possession of firearms. He died in HM Prison Maze (known as Long Kesh by Irish Republicans). He was the leader of the 1981 Hunger Strike and had been elected as a Member of Parliament (Anti-H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner) during his fast.

Family and early life

File:Bobby sands mural in belfast320.jpg

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

Bobby Sands was born in Abbots Cross, Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and lived there until 1960 and then moved to Rathcoole, Newtownabbey. His first sister, Marcella was born in April 1955 and second sister, Benadette was born in November 1958. His parents, John and Rosaleen had another son, John in 1962. His family had moved due to intimidation by loyalists, although it was not clear that the Sands were Roman 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. In June 1972, at the age of 18 he moved to the Twinbrook housing estate with his family. Sands' sister Bernadette Sands McKevitt is also a prominent Irish Republican, along with her husband Michael McKevitt she helped form the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and the Real Irish Republican Army.

IRA activity

In 1972, the year of the Troubles with the highest death toll, he joined the Provisional Irish Republican Army. In October of that year, Sands was arrested and charged with possession of four handguns which were found in the house in which he was staying. In April 1973 he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

On his release in 1976, he returned to his family in Twinbrook in west Belfast. Sands returned to active service in the PIRA. It was claimed that in October 1976 he was involved in the bombing of the Balmoral Furniture Company in Dunmurry, although he was never convicted of this bombing, and at the trial the judge said there was no evidence to support the assertion that he took part in the bombing. After the bombing, Sands and at least five others in the bomb team were allegedly involved in a gun battle with the police, although he was also never convicted of this, for lack of evidence. Abandoning two of their wounded friends, Seamus Martin and Gabriel Corbett, Sands with Joe McDonnell, Seamus Finucane and Sean Lavery, tried to escape in a car, but were caught. One of the revolvers used in the robbery was found in the car in which Sands was traveling.

His trial (in September 1977) saw him convicted of possession of firearms, the revolver from which bullets had been fired at the police after the bombing, and was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment.

Prisoner

He served his prison term at HM Prison Maze, also known by Irish republicans as Long Kesh. After internment a series of buildings known from their floor plans as 'H-Blocks' were 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 Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners in Long Kesh, succeeding Brendan Hughes who was participating in the first hunger strike.

Political status protests

Republican 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 wore blankets instead. Attempts to break the protest by brutalisation of prisoners saw the escalation to the "dirty protest" of 1978 when repeated beatings during "slop-out" led to prisoners living in squalor by smearing excrement on the walls. 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 reverted to its previous 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 successively over several months.

The hunger strike centred around "Five Demands":

1. The right not to wear a prison uniform;
2. The right not to do prison work;
3. The right of free association with other prisoners;
4. The right to organise their own educational and recreational facilities;
5. The right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week.

The significance of the hunger strike was to be declared as political prisoners not as criminals, POW's (prisoners of war). However, it was often regarded that the primary purpose of the exercise was to gain international publicity rather than political prisoner status.

Election

File:Sands election poster.jpg

A poster from the election campaign encouraging people to vote for Bobby Sands.

Shortly after the beginning of the strike, Frank Maguire, the Independent Republican MP for Fermanagh & South Tyrone died of a heart attack suddenly and precipitated a by-election.

The sudden vacancy in a seat with a small Roman 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 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, incidentally also becoming the youngest MP at the time.

Following Sands' success the Government rushed through Parliament the Representation of the People Act 1983 which prevents convicted prisoners serving jail terms of more than one year in either the UK or the Republic of Ireland, or unlawfully at large when they should be serving such a sentence, from being nominated as candidates in elections.

Death

Three weeks later, Bobby Sands MP died from starvation in the prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27. The announcement of his death prompted several days of riots in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. Over 100,000 people lined the route of his funeral. Sands was a Member of the Westminster Parliament for twenty-five days, though he never took his seat or oath.

In response to a question in the House of Commons on 5 May, 1981, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said, "Mr. Sands was a convicted criminal. He chose to take his own life. It was a choice that his organisation did not allow to many of its victims [2]."

He was survived by his parents, siblings, and a young son (Gerard) from his marriage to Geraldine Noade.

Political impact

Nine other IRA and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) members who were involved in the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike also died after Bobby Sands. Many Irish Republicans and IRA sympathisers 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. On the other hand, Unionists saw him as a pawn in a wider political movement which was trying to force concessions for republicans .

The media coverage that surrounded the death of Bobby 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 fundraising capability. Both nationalists and unionists began to harden their attitudes and move towards political extremes. Sands' Westminster seat was taken by his election agent, Owen Carron standing as 'Anti H-Block Proxy Political Prisoner' with an increased majority.

Reactions

Britain

• At Old Firm football matches in Glasgow, Scotland, some Rangers F.C. fans have been known to sing songs mocking Bobby Sands to taunt fans of Celtic F.C. Rangers fans are more likely to be sympathetic to the Unionist community and see Sands as a Republican terrorist; Celtic fans are more likely to support the Republican community and thus view him as a hero and martyr. The 1981 British Home Championship football tournament was cancelled following the refusal of teams from the other home nations to travel to Northern Ireland in the aftermath of his death due to security concerns.

• In May 2004 Sinn Fein lodged a complaint with the BBC after presenter Jeremy Clarkson said that a wall which appeared to have excrement on it looked as though it had been decorated by Bobby Sands. The BBC did not respond.

Europe

• In Milan, 5,000 students burned the Union Flag and shouted "Freedom for Ulster" during a march.
• In Ghent, students invaded the British Consulate.
• In Paris, thousands of Marxists marched behind huge portraits of Sands, to chants of 'The IRA will conquer'.
• In Oslo, demonstrators threw a balloon filled with tomato sauce at Elizabeth II, the Queen of the United Kingdom.
• In the Soviet Union, Pravda described it as 'another tragic page in the grim chronicle of oppression, discrimination, terror and violence' in Ireland.
• In France, many towns and cities have named streets for Sands. Examples include Nantes, Le Mans and St Denis.

USA and Cuba

• The Longshoremen's Union in New York announced a twenty-four-hour boycott of British ships.
• 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 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.
• The New Jersey State legislature voted 34-29 for a resolution honouring his 'courage and commitment.'
• In 2001 a memorial to Sands and the other hunger strikers was unveiled in Havana, Cuba.
• The Grateful Dead played the Nassau Coliseum on the night Sands died and guitarist Bob Weir dedicated the song "He's Gone" to Sands. It was notable as the band made a conscious effort throughout their career to be apolitical.The concert was later released as Dick's Picks Volume 13, part of the Grateful Dead's programme of live concert releases.
• Some American critics and journalists suggested American press coverage was a "melodrama" which had "given nearly exclusive coverage to pro- I.R.A. spokesmen". One journalist in particular criticised the large pro-IRA Irish-American contingent which "swallow IRA propaganda as if it were taffy", and concluding that IRA "Terrorist propaganda triumphs".

Asia and Oceania

• In Tehran, Iran revolutionaries sympathising with Sands renamed the street on which the British embassy was located on from Winston Churchill street to Bobby Sands street. There have recently been claims that the British foreign secretary has pressured Iranian authorities to change the name, but this is denied.. The website of the British Embassy in Tehran reports its address with another street name.
• 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".
• In India, Opposition members of the Upper House stood for a minute's silence in tribute.
• The Hong Kong Standard said it was 'sad that successive British governments have failed to end the last of Europe's religious wars.'

Music

Songs written in response to the hunger strikes and Sands death include (in alphabetical order):

Éire Nua flute band inspired by Bobby Sands, commemorate the Easter Rising on the 91st anniversary.

• 10 Years On - Blaggers I.T.A.
• Bobby Sands - Christy Moore
• Bobby Sands - Meic Stevens
• Bobby Sands - Kretens
• Bobby Sands MP - Black 47
• Bobby Untitled - Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers on his solo album "I Killed The Zeitgeist"
• Inspiration - Easterhouse
• It's gonna happen - The Undertones
• Sands - 286
• The Ballad of Joe McDonnell - The Wolfe Tones
• The Ghosts of Long Kesh - Crimson Spectre
• The H Block Song - Francie Brolly
• The People's Own MP - Christy Moore
• American rock band Rage Against the Machine listed Sands as an inspiration in the sleeve notes of their self titled debut album.
• The Roll of Honour - Gerry O'Glacain (The Irish Brigade)
• The Sign - Eric Bogle
• The Time Has Come - Christy Moore (although written specifically after the death of Patsy O'Hara)

Film

• Bobby Sands was played by John Lynch in the 1996 film Some Mother's Son.

Academia

• Maurice Goldring has written of the incident in terms of the "political instrumentalisation" of the media to achieve particular political aims, such as the painting of the event in terms of class war to gain support for communist party in France. He writes that "One might say that this is a blatant example of instrumental use of a foreign conflict for internal political purposes".

Published works

• While in prison Sands had several letters and articles published in the Republican paper An Phoblact/Republican News under the pseudonym "Marcella".

Other writings attributed to him include:

• Skylark Sing Your Lonely Song, 1989, Mercier Press, ISBN 0-85342-726-7
• One Day in My Life, 2001, Mercier Press, ISBN 1-85635-349-4

Sands also wrote the words of the song "Back Home in Derry" which was later recorded by Christy Moore.

See also

• Terence MacSwiney - Lord Mayor of Cork in 1920 who died in Brixton Prison after a hunger strike lasting 74 days.

External links

• Biography from Irish Republican website
• Bobby Sands Trust: established to publish and promote Sands' poetry and writing
• Bobby Sands diary entries & biographies of the ten hunger strikers
• Bobby Sands' Photo, Memorial & Gravesite