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Bobby Sands | |
|---|---|
| Roibeárd Ó Seachnasaigh | |
 Sands inLong Kesh, 1973 (aged 18–19) | |
| Member of Parliament forFermanagh and South Tyrone | |
| In office 9 April 1981[1] – 5 May 1981 | |
| Preceded by | Frank Maguire |
| Succeeded by | Owen Carron |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Gerard Sands (1954-03-09)9 March 1954 Dunmurry,County Antrim, Northern Ireland |
| Died | 5 May 1981(1981-05-05) (aged 27) HM Prison Maze,County Down, Northern Ireland |
| Cause of death | Hunger strike |
| Party | Anti H-Block |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Bernadette Sands McKevitt (sister) |
| 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 theProvisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died onhunger strike while imprisoned atHM Prison Maze inNorthern Ireland. Sands helped to plan the1976 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing in Dunmurry, which was followed by a gun battle with theRoyal Ulster Constabulary. Sands was arrested while trying to escape and sentenced to 14 years for firearms possession.
He was the leader of the1981 hunger strike in whichIrish republican prisoners protested against the removal ofSpecial Category Status. During Sands's strike, he was elected to theUK Parliament as anAnti H-Block candidate.[3][4] His death and those of nine hunger strikers were followed by a surge of IRA recruitment and activity. International media coverage brought attention to the hunger strikers, and the republican movement in general, attracting both praise and criticism.[5]
Robert Gerard Sands was born inDunmurry in 1954 to John and Rosaleen Sands.[6] After marrying, they relocated to the new development of Abbots Cross,Newtownabbey,County Antrim, outside NorthBelfast.[7] Sands was the eldest of four children. His younger sisters, Marcella andBernadette, 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 nearbyRathcoole development.[10] Rathcoole was 30% Catholic and featured Catholic schools as well as a nominally Catholic, but religiously mixed, youthfootball 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 playedleft-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 1966sectarian violence in Rathcoole, along with the rest of theBelfast 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 acoach builder atAlexander's Coach Works in 1970. He worked there for less than a year, enduring constant harassment from his Protestant co-workers, which according to several co-workers he ignored completely since he wished to learn a meaningful trade.[14] He was eventually confronted after leaving his shift in January 1971 by a number of his co-workers wearing the armbands of the localUlster loyalisttartan gang. He was held at gunpoint and told that Alexander's was off-limits to "Fenian scum" and never to come back if he valued his life. He later said that this event was the point at which he decided that militancy was the only solution.[15] In late 1971 while working as a barman at the Glen Inn (a pub inGlengormley), Sands approached a man whom he knew to be connected to the IRA and told him he would like to join; the man told Bobby to think it over as things in Rathcoole were bad and Catholics in the area were very isolated. Later that year the man from the pub spotted Bobby playing football on a pitch near the Sands house. As an initiation he asked Sands to transport a gun from Rathcoole to Glengormley because the local IRA volunteer who was supposed to do the job had failed to show up. Bobby left the game on the spot, changed clothes and took the gun.[16] This is when Bobby's involvement with the IRA began in earnest, according to O'Hearn:
Sands soon recruited some of his mates into a small auxiliary unit of 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 ofTwinbrook, where Sands, now thoroughly embittered, rejoined them. By 1973 almost every Catholic family had been driven out of Rathcoole by violence and intimidation, although there were some who remained.[18]
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 andJoe McDonnell planned the bombing of the Balmoral Furniture Company inDunmurry on 14 October 1976.[21] The showroom was destroyed but as the IRA men left the scene there was a gun battle with theRoyal 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 inCrumlin Road Prison. The cells contained a bed, a mattress, achamber pot and a water container. Books, radios and other personal items were not permitted, although a Bible and some Catholic pamphlets were provided. Sands refused to wear a prison uniform, so was kept naked in his cell for twenty-two days without access tobedding from 7.30 am to 8.30 pm each day.[24]
In late 1980, Sands was chosenOfficer Commanding of the Provisional IRA prisoners in theMaze Prison, succeedingBrendan Hughes, who was participating in thefirst hunger strike. Republican prisoners organised a series of protests seeking to regain their previousSpecial Category Status, which would free them from some ordinary prison regulations. This began with the "blanket protest" in 1976, in which the prisoners refused to wear prison uniforms and wore blankets instead. In 1978, after a number of attacks on prisoners leaving their cells to "slop out" (i.e., empty their chamber pots), this escalated into the "dirty protest", wherein prisoners refused to wash and smeared the walls of their cells with excrement.[25] Sands wrote about the brutality of Maze prison guards: "The screws [prison guards] removed me from my cell naked and I was conveyed to the punishment block in a blacked out van. As I stepped out of the van on arrival there they grabbed me from all sides and began punching and kicking me to the ground ... they dragged me by the hair across a stretch of hard core rubble to the gate of the punishment block. The full weight of my body recoiled forward again, smashing my head against the corrugated iron covering around the gate."[26]
While in prison, Sands had several letters and articles published in the Republican paperAn Phoblacht under the pseudonym "Marcella" (his sister's name). Other writings attributed to him are:Skylark Sing Your Lonely Song (1989)[27] andOne Day in My Life (1983).[28] Sands also wrote the lyrics of "Back Home in Derry" and "McIlhatton", which were both later recorded byChristy Moore, and "Sad Song for Susan", which was also later recorded. The melody of "Back Home in Derry" was borrowed fromGordon Lightfoot's 1976 song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".[29] The song itself is about thepenal transportation of Irishmen in the 19th century toVan Diemen's Land (modern dayTasmania,Australia).
The1981 Irish hunger strike started with Sands refusing food on 1 March 1981. Sands decided that 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 significance of the hunger strike was the prisoners' aim of being consideredpolitical 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]
Shortly after the beginning of the strike,Frank Maguire, theIndependent RepublicanMember of Parliament (MP) forFermanagh and South Tyrone, died suddenly of a heart attack, precipitating theApril 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 theSocial 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 theUlster Unionist Party candidateHarry West. Sandsbecame 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 theRepresentation of the People Act 1981, which prevents prisoners serving jail terms of more than one year in either the UK or theRepublic of Ireland from being nominated as candidates in UK 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]
Sands died on 5 May 1981 in the Maze's prison hospital after 66 days on hunger strike, aged 27.[38] The originalpathologist's report recorded the hunger strikers' causes of death as "self-imposed starvation", amended to simply "starvation" following protests by the dead strikers' families. Thecoroner recorded verdicts of "starvation, self-imposed".[39] Sands was one of 22 Irish republicans (in the 20th century) who died on hunger strike.[40]
Sands became amartyr to Irish republicans,[41] and the announcement of his death prompted several days of rioting innationalist areas ofNorthern Ireland. More than 100,000 people lined the route of Sands's funeral from St. Luke's Catholic Church inTwinbrook, and he was buried in the'New Republican Plot' alongside 76 others. Their graves are maintained by theNational Graves Association, Belfast.[42]
In response to a question in theHouse of Commons on 5 May 1981 the UK 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."[43]
CardinalBasil Hume, head of theCatholic 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 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]
AtOld Firm football matches inGlasgow, Scotland, someRangers fans have been known to sing songs mocking Sands to taunt fans ofCeltic. Celtic fans are traditionally more likely to support nationalists.[45][failed verification] Celtic fans regularly sing the republican song "The Roll of Honour", which commemorates the 10 men who died in the 1981 hunger strike, amongst other songs in support of the IRA. Sands is mentioned in the line "They stood beside their leader – the gallant Bobby Sands." Rangers' taunts have since been adopted by the travelling support of other UK clubs, particularly those with strongBritish nationalist ties, as a form ofanti-Irish sentiment.[46] The1981 British Home Championship football tournament was cancelled following the refusal of teams from England and Wales to travel to Northern Ireland in the aftermath of his death, due to security concerns.[citation needed]
In Europe, there were widespread protests after Sands's death. 5,000Milanese students burned theUnion Flag and chanted "Freedom for Ulster" during a march. The British Consulate atGhent was raided.[47] InParis, thousands marched "behind a huge portrait of Sands, to chants of 'the IRA will conquer'".[47]
In thePortuguese Parliament, theopposition stood in a minute's silence for Sands.[47] InOslo, one demonstrator threw a tomato atQueen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, but missed.[48] In theSoviet Union,Pravda described it as "another tragic page in the grim chronicle of oppression, discrimination, terror, and violence"[47] in Ireland. Many French towns and cities have streets named after Sands, includingNantes,Saint-Étienne,Le Mans,[49]Vierzon, andSaint-Denis.[50] According to Beresford, the conservative-alignedWest German newspaperDie Welt took a negative view towards Sands saying "the British Government was right and [Sands] was simply trying to blackmail the state with his life".[47]
A number of political, religious, union and fund-raising institutions chose to honour Sands in the United States. TheInternational Longshoremen's Association in New York announced a 24-hour boycott of British ships.[51] Over 1,000 people gathered inNew York'sSt. Patrick's Cathedral to hear CardinalTerence Cooke offer a reconciliationMass for Northern Ireland. Irish pubs in the city were closed for two hours in mourning.[52]
TheNew Jersey General Assembly, thelower house of theNew 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] TheChicago 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] TheSan 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 ofThe Pittsburgh Press criticised the large pro-IRA Irish-American contingent which "swallow IRA propaganda as if it weretaffy", and concluded that IRA "terrorist propaganda triumphs".[58]
ArchbishopJohn R. Roach, president of theNational Conference of Catholic Bishops, called Sands's death "a useless sacrifice".[59]The Ledger of 5 May 1981 claimed that the hunger strike made Sands "a hero among Irish Republicans, or nationalists, seeking the reunion of Protestant-dominated and British-ruled Northern Ireland with the independent and predominantly Catholic Irish Republic to the south".[44]The Ledger quoted Sands as saying "If I die, God will understand" and "Tell everyone I'll see them somewhere, sometime".[44]
InHartford, Connecticut, a memorial was dedicated to Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers in 1997, the only one of its kind in the United States. Set up by theIrish Northern Aid Committee and local Irish-Americans, it stands in a traffic island known as Bobby Sands Circle at the bottom of Maple Avenue near Goodwin Park.[60]
In 2001, a memorial to Sands and the other hunger strikers was unveiled inHavana, Cuba.[61]
InProvidence, Rhode Island, a monument to Sands and the other hunger strikers was unveiled in May 2023.[62]
The Iranian government renamed Winston Churchill Boulevard, the location of theEmbassy of the United Kingdom in Tehran, to Bobby Sands Street, prompting the embassy to move its entrance door toFerdowsi Street to avoid using Bobby Sands Street on its letterhead.[64] A street in theElahieh district is also named after Sands.[65] An official blue and white street sign was affixed to the rear wall of the British embassy compound saying (in Persian) "Bobby Sands Street" with three words of explanation "militant Irish guerrilla".[63] The officialPars News Agency called Bobby Sands's death "heroic".[63] There have been claims that the British pressured Iranian authorities to change the name of Bobby Sands Street but this was denied.[66][67] A burger bar in Tehran is named in honour of Sands.[68]
Nine IRA andIrish National Liberation Army members who were involved in the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike died after Sands. On the day of Sands's funeral the Unionist leader,Ian Paisley, held a memorial service outsideBelfast City Hall to commemorate the victims of the IRA.[51] In theIrish 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 inthe 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.[71] Sands's Westminster seat was taken by his election agent,Owen Carron, standing as 'Anti H-Block Proxy Political Prisoner' with an increased majority.[72] Shortly after Sands's death theRepresentation of the People Act 1981 was passed through parliament. As a result of the Act prisoners on hunger strike were unable to stand in thesecond 1981 by-election in Fermanagh and South Tyrone.[citation needed]
TheGrateful Dead played at theNassau Coliseum the night after Sands died and guitaristBob Weir dedicated the song "He's Gone" to Sands.[73] The concert was later released asDick's Picks Volume 13, part of the Grateful Dead's programme of live-concert releases.
Songs written in response to the hunger strikes and Sands's death include songs byEasterhouse,Black 47,Nicky Wire,Meic Stevens,the Undertones,Eric Bogle,Soldat Louis andChristy Moore. Moore's song,"The People's Own MP", has been described as an example of arebel song of the hero-martyr genre in which Sands's "intellectual, artistic and moral qualities" areeulogised.[74] The US rock bandRage Against the Machine listed Sands as an inspiration in the sleeve notes of theirself-titled debut album and as a "political hero" in media interviews.[75]
Celtic F.C. received a €50,000 fine fromUEFA over banners depicting Sands with a political message displayed during a game on 26 November 2013[76] byGreen Brigade fans.[77]
Bobby Sands has been portrayed in the following films:
Sands married Geraldine Noade while in prison on robbery charges on 3 March 1973. His son, Gerard, was born 8 May 1973.[83] Noade soon left with Gerard to live in England.[84]
Sands's sister,Bernadette Sands McKevitt, is also a prominentIrish republican. She was a founding member of the32 County Sovereignty Movement in 1997.[85] She opposed theGood Friday Agreement, stating that "Bobby did not die for cross-border bodies with executive powers. He did not die for nationalists to be equal British citizens within the Northern Ireland state."[86]
His granddaughter, Erin, played for the County Down team which won theAll-Ireland Junior Ladies' Football Championship in 2023.[87]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)(October 2004).
Celtic Football Club has been fined €50,000 over a banner depicting IRA hunger-striker Bobby Sands
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.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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Data from Wikidata| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | MP forFermanagh and South Tyrone 9 April – 5 May 1981 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Baby of the House 9 April – 5 May 1981 | |
| Participants who died | ||
|---|---|---|
| Participants who survived |
| |
| Political and religious figures | ||
| Key events | ||
