Bobby Sands and the 1981 Hunger Strike

“They have nothing in their imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of one Irishman who refuses to be broken.” – Bobby Sands

Bobby Sands was born in 1954.  His early childhood was spent in Abbots Cross, Newtownabbey, County Antrim.  In 1961, because of harassment and intimidation from their Protestant neighbors, the family moved to the Rathcoole development.  Rathcoole was a mixed neighborhood of both Protestants (70%) and Catholics (30%).  It contained Catholic schools as well as a mixed youth football club, which was unusual in Northern Ireland.   

By 1966, sectarian violence in Rathcoole worsened and the minority Catholic population found itself under attack.  Sands suddenly found that none of his Protestant friends would speak to him, so he learned to associate only with Catholics.  He left school in 1969 and enrolled in Newtownabbey Technical College.  He became an apprentice coach builder in 1970.  During his apprenticeship he endured constant harassment from Protestant co-workers but ignored it because he wished to learn a meaningful trade.  In 1971 he was confronted by a group of coworkers wearing the armbands of the local Ulster loyalist tartan gang.  He was held at gunpoint and told that he was "Fenian scum" and to never 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.  Sands joined the IRA in late 1971.

In June 1972, Sands' parents' home was attacked and damaged by a loyalist mob and they were again forced to move.  By 1973 all Catholic families had been driven out of Rathcoole by violence and intimidation.  In April 1973 Sands was sentenced to five years imprisonment for possession of a handgun.  He was released in April 1976.

In October 1976 Sands was again arrested and sentenced to 14 years for possession of a revolver.  He was sent to the punishment block in Crumlin Road Prison. The cells contained a bed, a mattress, a chamber 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 to bedding from 7.30 am to 8.30 pm each day.  He was later transferred to Maze Prison.

In late 1980, Sands was chosen Officer Commanding of the Provisional IRA prisoners in the Maze Prison.  He organized a protest seeking to gain Special Category Status for IRA prisoners.  This status would free them from 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 several attacks on prisoners leaving their cells to "slop out" (empty their chamber pots), this escalated into the "dirty protest", where prisoners refused to wash and smeared the walls of their cells with excrement.

The years of protest culminated in the 1981 hunger strike called by Sinn Féin, the political arm of the IRA.  It started with Sands refusing food on March 1, 1981. Sands decided that other prisoners should join the strike at staggered intervals to maximize publicity, with prisoners steadily deteriorating successively over several months. The hunger strike centered on 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 organize educational and recreational pursuits; the right to one visit, one letter, and one parcel per week; and full restoration of remission lost through the protest.  The significance of the hunger strike was the prisoners' aim of being considered political prisoners as opposed to criminals. 

Shortly after the hunger strike began Frank Maguire, the Independent Republican Member of Parliament (MP) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, died of a heart attack.  An election to choose his successor was scheduled for April 1981 and Sands was nominated as the "Anti H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner" candidate.  Sands won the seat and became the youngest MP at the time.  Following Sands win the British government introduced the Representation of the People Act 1981 which prevents prisoners serving jail terms of more than one year in either the UK or the Republic of Ireland from being nominated as candidates in British elections.

Sands died at the age of 27 on May 5, 1981 in the Maze's prison hospital after 66 days on hunger strike and became a martyr to Irish republicans.  The announcement of his death prompted days of rioting in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. More than 100,000 people lined the route of Sands funeral, and he was buried in Miltown Cemetery’s 'New Republican Plot' alongside 76 others. 

Nine more hunger strikers died before the strike was called off on October 3, 1981:  Francis Hughes; Raymond McCreesh; Patsy O’Hara; Joe McDonnell; Martin Hurson; Kevin Lynch; Kieran Doherty; Thomas McElwee; and Michael Devine.  Concessions were announced on October 6th and included the right to wear their own clothes at all times.  The only one of the five demands still outstanding was the right not to do prison work.  Following sabotage by the prisoners and the Maze Prison escape in 1983 the prison workshops were closed, effectively granting all of the demands but without any formal recognition of political status from the government.

Reaction around the world was immediate.  British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher said, "Mr. Sands was a convicted criminal. He chose to take his own life.”  In Europe, there were widespread protests. 5,000 Milanese students burned the Union Flag and chanted "Freedom for Ulster" during a march. The British Consulate at Ghent was raided.  In Paris, thousands marched behind a huge portrait of Sands and chanted of 'the IRA will conquer'.  The Portuguese Parliament stood in a minute's silence for Sands.  In Oslo, a demonstrator threw a tomato at Queen Elizabeth.  The Indian Parliament stood for a minute's silence in tribute.  The Hindustan Times said Margaret Thatcher “allowed a fellow Member of Parliament to die of starvation, an incident which had never before occurred in a civilized country.”

Sands was honored in the United States. New York City mayor Ed Koch urged Britain to withdraw from Northern Ireland.  The International Longshoremen's Association in New York announced a 24-hour boycott of British ships.  Over 1,000 people gathered in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral to hear Cardinal Cooke offer a reconciliation Mass for Northern Ireland. Irish pubs in the city were closed for two hours in mourning.  The Grateful Dead played the Nassau Coliseum the night after Sands died and dedicated the song "He's Gone" to Sands.  The New Jersey General Assembly passed a resolution honoring his "courage and commitment."

Commemoration of the sacrifice of Bobby Sands continues to this day.  In Hartford, Connecticut, a memorial was dedicated to Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers.  It stands in a traffic island known as Bobby Sands Circle.  Many French towns and cities have streets named after Sands, including Nantes, Saint-Étienne, Le Mans, Vierzon, and Saint-Denis.  In 2001, a memorial to Sands and the other hunger strikers was unveiled in Havana, Cuba.  The Iranian government renamed Winston Churchill Boulevard, the location of the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Tehran, to Bobby Sands Street, prompting the embassy to move its entrance door to Ferdowsi Avenue to avoid using Bobby Sands Street on its letterhead.  

The legacy of Bobby Sands is that his sacrifice, and that of the other nine, allowed Sinn Féin to escape from the shadow of the IRA to become a serious political party in its own right.  Four decades later the party is in a stronger position than ever before.  Many experts predict that Sinn Féin will top the polls in the May 5th Northern Ireland Assembly election.  A win by Sinn Féin will bring a United Ireland closer to realization.