A History of Ireland in Song

Bobby Sands

Bobby Sands MP was an Irish patriot and IRA Volunteer. He was the first to die during the 1981 H Block Hunger Strike, at the age of 27. Although often smeared as a "convicted IRA terrorist", his only conviction was in fact for possession of a revolver, a crime for which he received fourteen years. He was elected to the British parliament by the voters of "Fermanagh/South Tyrone" while on the strike, but the Brits let him die anyway.

Bobby's death sent echoes round the world. "In the Indian parliament, the opposition party observed a minute's silence. In New York Union Jacks were pulled down and burned. In Le Mans a street was named after Sands. In Cuba Fidel Castro said "the Irish patriots are in the process of writing one of the most heroic pages in human history." In Paris, the French Foreign Minister, Claude Cheysson, spoke publicly of the "supreme sacrifice" which the hunger strikers had made, going on to state that their courage demanded respect. The French Government also offered the Dublin Government two gestures of solidarity which Dublin declined. One was to boycott the British royal wedding, the other that President Mitterand attend Bobby Sand's funeral." (Tim Pat Coogan, The Troubles, Hutchinson, 1995).

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