Ireland's OWN: Hungerstrikes

Ireland's OWN: Hungerstrikes

Bobby Sands
(1954-1981)
—by Míchealín Dhochartaigh

Bobby Sands was born in 1954 in the predominantly Loyalist district of Rathcoole in North Belfast. The eldest of four children, he left school in 1969 and went to work, apprenticing as a coachmaker. In 1972 his family moved to a nationalist housing development called Twinbrook, in West Belfast, after having endured years of intimidation and harassment. Bobby Sands

Bobby joined the IRA in his young teens, and at the age of 18 he was arrested, subsequently spending three years in jail. Six months after his release, he was re-arrested on active service following a bomb attack. Bobby was taken to Castlereagh where he was interrogated for seven days. He refused to talk and he refused to recognise the court. Bobby was sentenced to five years in the cages of Long Kesh. He was assigned to Cage 11.

Released in April of 1976, he was re-arrested in October of the same year. Now married, with a three-year-old son, he was sentenced to 14 years in Long Kesh. In 1976, the british government had introduced legislation as part of their efforts to depict Republican paramilitary groups as a ‘criminal conspiracy,’ which classified all prisoners arrested after 1 March 1976, as ‘criminals’—this policy was in direct contradiction to the ‘special category status’ a hunger strike by Republicans in a Belfast jail had achieved in 1972.

Republican prisoners, however, who had been arrested under special laws, interrogated in special centres, and sentenced by non-jury courts refused to be criminalised; and, Bobby Sands gained a reputation for being particularly steadfast in his opposition to the increasingly brutal treatment from the guards.

A number of guards during this time had a habit of “accidentally” drenching POWs with hoses, particularly in winter. The POWs learned to stay clear of windows when they spotted these guards cleaning nearby. One day when the call went down from cell to cell, relaying a warning to stay clear of the windows because the screws were coming with the hose, Sands, hearing the warning, stepped up to the window, deliberately making himself a target. While the guard turned the full force of the hose on him, he stood unmoving, refusing to back down as the water poured over him. Only when the guard had given up and moved on did he turn from the window. A cell check later found him lying hypothermic and semiconscious in a flood of icy water on the floor of his cell. The incident nearly cost him his life. But his purpose was served and there was, at least for a time, an end to the hose game.

As part of their refusal to be criminalised, the Republican prisoners began a blanket protest in which they H Block Cell wrapped themselves in blankets rather than wear prison uniforms. These prisoners were subjected to torture and held in solitary confinement until they had to be moved because of overcrowding.
In 1978, prison authorities began to deny the Republican prisoners access to toilets and wash facilities. This led to the 'No-Wash' protest; and then in 1980 H block Republican prisoners, and women of the Armagh Gaol, went on a 55-day hunger strike (with no fatalities) which resulted in a Brit promise of more a lenient prison regime. The British government, however, did not live up to its promise!!

In March 1981 (two weeks before the rest of his comrades), Bobby Sands went on hunger strike.

The hunger strikers specific demands included:

The right to wear their own clothes at all times.
No menial work; however, they were willing do work required for maintenance and cleaning of the portions of the prison occupied to them.
The right to associate freely at recreation time. Study time; including the right to organise their own education and recreational pursuits in prison.
The right to a weekly visit, letter, or parcel.
The right to remission of sentences as was provided to all other prisoners.

Shortly after Bobby went on hunger strike, the Independent MP for counties Fermanagh and South Tyrone died. Bobby stood on a “political prisoner” ticket and was elected MP.

Despite the election result, the british government refused to negotiate and subsequently enacted legislation to change electoral law and prevent another Republican prisoner from standing for election.

Bobby Sands was only 27 years old when he died while on hunger strike in the H blocks of Long Kesh prison in May 1981.

On the 66th day of the hunger strike, Bobby Sands died. Nine men Funeral of Bobby Sands were to follow him to the grave. Margaret Thatcher, prime minister at the time, never settled the hunger crisis. The hunger strike ended in October 1981 after families, encouraged by the Catholic church, sanctioned medical interventions for their sons or husbands.

After the deaths in 1982 of ten hunger strikers, a Forum met in Dublin to adopt policies which it was hoped would avert such tragedies in the future. Three alternative policies were proposed, the strongest being a united Ireland and the weakest Joint Administration. Thatcher immediately rejected all three proposals with the now famous triple negative: “No, no, no.”

For the first 17 days of his hunger strike, Bobby kept a diary.

Diary of Bobby Sands

Moon Rising Mural, Belfast, Ireland Bobby Sands was a believer in the spirit of the common man. He revered the ability of the common man to triumph against all odds. Deprived of his childhood and his youth, he nonetheless maintained his commitment and his integrity through the harshest of trials and faced his final task with courage, dignity, and an unwavering devotion to country and his comrades.

Bobby's last words in his diary were:

Ní bhrisfidh siad mé mar tá an fonn saoirse, agus saoirse mhuintir na hÉireann i mo chroí. Tiocfaidh lá eigin nuair a bheidh an fonn saoirse seo le taispeáint ag daoine go léir na hÉireann ansin tchífidh muid éirí ná gealaí.

[They wont break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then that we will see the rising of the moon.]

See Also:

Video Footage:

Skylark Sing Your Lonely Song

Bobby also wrote poetry, we've included some of his poems here: Funeral of Bobby Sands

'Marcella' com mural (click thumbnail to enlarge) from Arty Bhoy. Used here with his permission.

In Memory of Bobby Sands:

Song for Marcella —Bik McFarlane
Sweet Bobby Sands —Sharon Marshall

Videos were provided to Ireland's OWN by Jack Harper and the Irish Republican Solidarity Group Germany