This is a day for remembering.
I am struggling to fully comprehend that it is four decades since Bobby Sands commenced his hunger strike.
He was utterly determined to see it through to the end if that was required.
The previous year seven Republican prisoners had begun a hunger strike on Monday, October 27th, 1980.
Brendan Hughes, Raymond McCartney, Tommy McFeely, Leo Green, Tommy McKearney, and Sean McKenna represented the IRA; John Nixon represented the INLA.
The number of men on the protest was a nod to the number of signatories to the Easter Proclamation.
They wanted the political status that had been withdrawn in 1976 re-instated.
This was encapsulated in the “five demands”:
- The right not to wear a prison uniform.
- The right not to do prison work.
- The right of free association with other prisoners and to organise educational and recreational pursuits.
- The right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week.
- Full restoration of remission lost through the protest.
Essentially, they were telling Thatcher and the world that they were not criminals.
The strike ended, after 53 days, with Sean Mckenna close to death.
They called off the protest when they thought they had a deal from the Brits.
Of course, Perfidious Albion is never not at it.
Privately Bobby Sands, the OC in the Blocks, conceded that the Brits had played them.
He told his comrades “Fuair muid faic” (we got nothing).
Consequently, he knew that another strike was inevitable, and this time it would be led by him.
I remember the jubilation when it was possible to utter the words “Bobby Sands MP”.
His victory in the Fermanagh South Tyrone by-election was a global story.
A member of the British Parliament was on hunger strike to secure political status.
In my naiveté, I thought that this would force Thatcher to negotiate in good faith.
Four decades on, I realise that I had no idea of the British state’s dark heart.
On May 5th 1981, after 66 days on hunger strike, his mighty Irish heart stopped.
The world came to his funeral, and the British policy of criminalisation was in tatters.
Yet still, Thatcher would not relent.
At the end of that awful year, the message to the nationalist community in the Six Counties was clear.
Not everyone could plant a bomb, but everyone could plant a vote.
The Brits and their Free State allies here had said that the armed struggle was happening because Republicans could not get electoral support.
Now, in 2021 they are faced with the appalling vista of Sinn Féin being the dominant political party in both jurisdictions on this island.
Only for a (very rare) lapse in judgement, the general election in February 2020 would have seen Mary Lou McDonald as Taoiseach.
Quite simply, Sinn Féin didn’t run enough candidates.
It is an error they are unlikely to repeat.
Before sitting down to write this today, I re-entered the world of Bobby sands.
All writers have that immorality, but some more than others.
Of course, the screws who abused him and his incarcerated comrades have disappeared without trace in the sweep of history.
For those of ye who wish to read further and learn on the subject, then this book is highly recommended.
Here is my review on the Bobby Sands Trust.
History forgotten is a betrayal.
History remembered is a weapon.
Bobby Sands was born into an apartheid statelet that didn’t want him.
The sad truth is that most people, shown to the back of the bus, will accept that is where they will sit out their short existence.
Others lead from the front and change the narrative.
The activist generation are now grandparents, and in time their grandchildren will in time have kids of their own.
I am more convinced than I have ever been that those children will grow and laugh in a United Ireland.
The march towards an end of partition and an island of equals is now inexorable.
For that to happen, the post-Civil War, post-Fianna Fáil Republican Movement had to become a political force again.
It was a major project and it started 40 years ago today.
This is a day for gratitude.
Míle Buíochas Bobby.
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Pontins used ‘undesirables list’ of Irish surnames
Disgusting racist practise by pontins to exclude all Irish names and accents , possibly for last 6 years
And for anyone that thinks that these kinds of problems are all in the past and that we should just “move on”, here’s a wee reminder of how Timmy is still “welcomed” to this day in some corners of perfidious Albion: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56246848.
The sad thing about those events is how things have changed in recent times. Growing up in Belfast, my whole live from the 50s on was a dream for a United Ireland. During the 70s and 80a, we thought we were closer than ever. But now our aspiration has changed from a Reunited Ireland in our lifetimes to a border poll in our lifetimes. Perfidious Albion took us for a ride with that carrot on a stick and we fell for it hook line and sinker.The tory lite of Blairs labour led us to believe it would happen within ten years now here we are 23 years on and the poll is no closer than ever. Bobby fought and died for the dream of 32 that he knew England would never grant peacefully. We gave it up for a sometime never poll that England will never grant no matter what the conditions. We should have known it was ridiculous that some secretary of state would only call a poll when he thought he could lose it. You call polls when you think you can win
‘Blessed Are Those Who Hunger For Justice’
Bobby Sands MP
“They have nothing in their whole imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of one Irishman who doesn’t want to be broken.”
I was once approached by Granada TV to dramatise the book ‘Ten Men Dead’ by David Beresford, which told the harrowing story of the Hunger Strikes. Also involved was a Hollywood geezer whose initials were BS, appropriately enough. At the first meeting I had with the Granada people, Ray Fitzwalter was there along with the proposed producer, plus a Granada drama person and BS. BS, straight off the bat wanted to know where the ‘three acts’ would start and finish. I told him I didn’t know, as I had only read the (wonderful) book and hadn’t given any thought to structure. He then wanted to know what ‘role’ I had in mind for the ‘sweethearts’ of (some of) the hunger strikers (I’m sure you’ll know who they are/were, Phil) and when I said I didn’t see much of a role for them, as I would be trying to do justice to the ‘ten men’ in the title, plus certain families, I knew I had fucked up. It was clear that BS wanted to ‘sex up’ the narrative, and actually said, in the meeting, with such journalistic giants as Fitzwalter (and the producer) present. “I mean, what was it all about? They wanted to receive mail and get to wear their own clothes!” I wanted to—-well, need I say it? But good manners and the presence of people I respected meant that BS left without a single bruise to his well fed face.
On a more humorous note, when I had to travel to Belfast with the producer, we were put up in the Europa Hotel, which I believe was the most bombed hotel in Europe at the time. Being quite nervous I told the producer we needed a cover story for being in Belfast, and he said it would be no problem, we would say we were there to ‘do something’ on the economy of the province. Reassured I went for an afternoon siesta. When I woke at about six o’clock it was to see that an A4 sheet had been pushed under my room door courtesy of the hotel. It informed me that I was to be at a ‘Republican Club’ in ( forget the address) at 6pm. So much for ‘cover stories’.
My self and the ‘producer’ went to the club and met some interesting people. One young man(surname begins with J) tried to get on the hunger strike but was prevented from doing so by B. McF. At the end of the meeting the young man said, with heavy irony, “we’ll just melt into the shadows now.”
Needless to say the drama never got made, despite me offering to write on a ‘no acceptable script no fee’ basis. BS would have none of it. I don’t know if that book is still in print, but if it is I would recommend it. Maybe someday, someone will be able to dramatise it in the correct way, and not according to shallow Hollywood rules. How about it Phil?
There have been several excellent films made on the subject.
Hunger (Dir Steve McQueen) is my pick.
Didn’t know that Phil. Must try to find it and see it.
It has a central scene in the film between Bobby Sands( Michael Fassbender) and a priest Liam Cunnigham) and it is shot like a stage play.
Very art-house feel to the entire film.
Excellent.
I believe that whole scene with the priest and Bobby (Fassbender) was continuous, with no cutting or editing. One of the most moving scenes I’ve, well, seen. I remember watching it in a packed, but eerily quiet and transfixed, GFT in Glasgow.
Ten Men Dead is a masterpiece. I have a feeling that a dramatisation wouldn’t do it justice, but anything that brings their story to a new generation is to be welcomed. As the end of Ten Men Dead tells us, following the death of Terence MacSwiney, WB Yeats rewrote the ending to his hunger-strike play, The King’s Threshold.
It originally had the poet, Seanchan, abandoning his hunger-strike and living on. In the rewritten version Seanchan dies, surrounded by his young apprentices who are themselves under death sentences. The poet’s dying words are a fitting epitaph for the Irish hunger strike of 1981:
“When I and these are dead
We should be carried to some windy hill
To lie there with uncovered face awhile
That mankind and that leper there may know
Dead faces laugh. King! King! Dead faces laugh”
You forgot to remind him to have his paper hankies handy. That film made me cry, in fact just reading your article made me cry. Tears of sadness, tears of pride
On a different note, what do you make of this phil https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56246848
Shocking anti Irish racism
Appalling.
No, no, no.
This was Anti-GRT (Gypsy, Roma and Traveller) discrimination and not Anti-Irish racism or anything else.
My surname was on that list but further enquiries would have determined I was “settled” and they would have welcomed me with open arms unlike any Traveller.
As well as the gross offence of Pontins, people trying to portray this as something else has also, rightly, caused great anger .
I know people get, rightly, offended when, for example, Anti-Irish racism in Scotland gets subsumed in a nebulous “Sectarianism” category and we should all avoid doing exactly the same to other minorities.
History will NEVER be forgotten
Sure is a day for gratitude,to All who have made the ultimate sacrifice,their life.
Thanks Phil enjoying the blog greatly atm,I hope your vision of a united Ireland is 100% on the money and you’re usually good for that.
I only wish my father could see this all progress,who knows,maybe ha can,Slainte 🍻
Bobby Sands MP, and his fellow Patriots should always be remembered as incredible human beings who sacrificed their lives so that their children could live in peace and a higher degree of fairness, and I hope their martyrdom will reunite Ireland as it should be an Island Nation “
The Sands of time have come and gone
The journey still continues