REMEMBER BOBBY SANDS (9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981)
CELTIC LEAGUE - PRESS INFORMATION
REMEMBER BOBBY SANDS (9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981)
Given the significant political developments in several of the Celtic
countries over the past few days the poignant anniversary of a period
when things did not look so optimistic for the Celtic people could
be easily overlooked.
Today is the anniversary of the death, over a quarter of a century
ago, of the leader of the republican hunger strikers, Bobby Sands.
Bobby Sands was serving a 14 year prison sentence following his conviction
for possessing arms following a gun battle with police in 1976.
He
might have served his sentence with the same stoicism of countless
of other republican prisoners had events in the early 1980s not catapulted
him to prominence, first in Ireland and subsequently internationally.
In the 1970s republican prisoners in the infamous Maze prison (the
H Blocks) had been involved in a series of protests which sought to
regain a previous status they had achieved as political prisoners.
This political status meant they were not subject to ordinary prison
regulations.
Their campaign had started with the "blanket protest"
in 1976, when the prisoners refused to wear uniform and wore blankets
instead.
Increasingly brutal attempts to break the protest of the republican
prisoners led them to escalate their struggle to the "dirty protest"
of 1978.
Subsequently, in 1980, there was an initial hunger strike
but this was ended when the British Government appeared to concede
the prisoners' demands.
However, the British were disingenuous and once the strike was over,
the British Government reverted to its previous stance.
This led to
a second hunger strike which started when Bobby Sands refused food
on 1 March 1981.
Other prisoners joined the strike at staggered intervals
and this maximised publicity although the prisoners steadily deteriorated
over several months.
Bobby Sands died on 5th May 1981. He was just 27 years old.
His death
and also the deaths of 9 other hunger strikers who were members of
the Irish Republican Army and Irish National Liberation Army caused
major revulsion around the world and there were protests on every
continent.
Whilst on hunger-strike Bobby Sands was elected to the British parliament
and its often claimed, particularly by British political commentators,
that this period kick-started a process which led to the political
consensus that has since emerged in Ireland.
However, this is scarcely
credible and it is clear that when Bobby Sands initiated his political
moves he was pursuing a time-honoured process whereby imprisoned Republicans used the British political system to maximise the propaganda value of their protests.
If that was his aim he succeeded dramatically and
the International condemnation which the British government experienced
following his death and the deaths of the other hunger strikers proves
this.
Various shades of Irish republican and nationalist political opinion
lay claim to the legacy of Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers.
However one thing is clear. In taking the decision to confront the
occupation of their country in the dramatic way that they did and
subsequently paying the ultimate price they were seeking to achieve
a straightforward objective - A FREE UNITED IRELAND - and that
objective is still not achieved.
List of the hunger strikers with the date of their deaths in 1981:
Bobby Sands MP IRA 5 May
Francis Hughes IRA 12 May
Raymond McCreesh IRA 21 May
Patsy O’Hara INLA 21 May
Joe McDonnell IRA 8 July
Martin Hurson IRA 13 July
Kevin Lynch INLA 1 August
Kieran Doherty TD IRA 2 August
Thomas McElwee IRA 8 August
Michael Devine INLA 20 August
J B Moffatt
Director of Information
Celtic League
05/05/07