The riddle of Mr Sands

international | history and heritage | opinion/analysis Friday May 05, 2006 18:21 by erse

25 years ago today after a hunger strike of 66 days, Robert Gerard Sands more commonly known as Bobby Sands died. He had been born on the 9th of March 1954 and was only 27 when he died.

He was serving a 14 year sentance for possession of firearms, a pistol which had been found in car in which he and 4 others had been travelling. His trial in 1977 saw other charges relating to a bomb which had been planted nearby the car dropped for lack of evidence. It was not his first experience of imprisonment. He had joined the IRA in 1972 and that same year been interned and held without trial till 1976. Of his 27 years' life, only 17 were spent in freedom.

Ireland as they say - was different then.

Bobby Sands Street in Tehran (prior to his death this was Winston Churchill Street)

& it is vitally important for younger readers to spend some time reflecting on those differences, and what forces brought Bobby Sands to internment, to IRA activism, to the Crown Prisons of Lonk Kesh / the Maze and saw him begin a fast on March 1, 1981 at only 26 years of age. That fast would turn into a hunger strike, and see him elected to Westminster as MP for Fermanagh & South Tyrone on the 9th of April 1981, with 30,492 votes to 29,046 for the Ulster Unionist Party candidate Harry West, less than month later his life would end in globally recognised martydom.

go to the links you youngsters and learn :
http://www.bobbysands.ie/ where you may also read the poetry he wrote in prison.
http://larkspirit.com/hungerstrikes/bios/sands.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Sands
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/troubles/hungerstrikes/

Recent commemorations have been many and global, you could start learning about the legacy of Mr Sands by using our search engine. & varying it a little. This link might even help -
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?search_text=hunger...trike

Prolonged fasting or Hunger Strikes are not really a good way of achieving political goals.

Today's commemorations as reported by the Irish State news-provider :-
http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0505/sandsb.html
as reported here :-
http://indymedia.ie/article/75867