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Life
| [Gl. Roibeard Gearóid Ó Seachnasaigh]; b. 9 March, in Abbots cross, Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim; son of Rosaleen [var. Rosemary] and John, with sisters Marcella and Bernadette and br. John (b.1962); forced to raised in predominantly Protestant neighbourhood; moved to Rathcoole, Newtownabbey, 1960; became apprentice coach-builder, but driven out of the trade by loyalist violence; family moved to Twinbrook estate, W. Belfast, 1972; joined IRA 1972; arrested for possession of four hand-guns and sentenced to 5 years in prison, April 1973; m. Geraldine Noade, with whom a son (Robert) Gerald; |
| served his sentence in Long Kesh [HMS Maze Prison]; rearrested for bombing of Balmoral Furniture Company (Dunmurry), Oct. 1976, but acquitted for lack of evidence; rearrested for possession of fire-arms used in the car-chase following the bombing, Sept. 1977, and sentenced to 14 years; learned Irish in Long Kesh; publ. poetry and prose in An Phoblacht; appt. Commanding Officer of the IRA in Long Kesh, 1980; demanded treatment as political prisoners in resumption of previous Special Category Status; participated in “blanket protest”, 1976, and afterwards “dirty protest”, 1978; official refused by the British Government, 1981; embarked on first hunger strike, Christmas 1980; |
| commenced fatal hunger-strike, 1 March 1981; co-ordinated phased participation of 9 other strikers; elected to Fermanagh-S. Tyrone seat, 9 April 1981, with a majority of almost 1,500 against Harry West; elected MP for Fermanagh-Tyrone with vote of 30,000 against Harry West, Unionist, 9 April, 1981; d. 5 May 1981, after 66 days, his death sparking riots, and expressly condemned in Parliament by Mrs Thatcher as victim of his own policy; received papal instructions to cease hunger strike, conveyed by Fr. Magee acting as a mediator in concert with the British Secretary of State; sought terms consistent with the policy of the strikers, and was refused; |
| his funeral was attended by estimated crowd of 100,000 - an event marked by their respectful silence; the hunger strike ended in 3 Oct. 1981, following the death of a total of 10 strikers; posthum. published prison diary and poems, Skylark, Sing Your Lonely Song (1982), intro. Ulick O’Connor; the street in Tehran on which the British Embassy is located was renamed Bobby Sands St., while Green Square in Tripoli (Jamahiraya/Libya) was for some time renamed Bobby Sands Square in his memory; he was succceeded in Parliament by his election agent Owen Carron; Steve McQueen filmed the drama of Bobby Sands’ hungerstrike as Hunger (2008), with a script by Enda Walsh and Michael Fassbender in the lead rôle; his ballad “Back Home in Derry”, written in Long Kesh and featuring an penal exile in Australia, was sung recorded by Christy Moore. DIB |
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| Funeral of Bobby Sands leaves his mother’s home in Twinbrook 7 May 1981. |
| [ See BBC report by Kate Adie - online; available 30.03.2014.] |
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Works
The Diary of Bobby Sands, with a foreword by Danny Morrison (1981) [and trans.]; Skylark, Sing Your Lonely Song, intro. Ulick O’Connor (Cork: Mercier 1982); One Day in My Life, foreword by Seán MacBride (Cork: Mercier 1983; 2001); Bobby Sands: Writings from Prison, with a foreword by Gerry Adams (Cork: Mercier Press 1998).
Prison Diary: ‘Tomorrow is the eleventh day and there is a long way to go. Someone should write a poem of the tribulations of a hunger-striker. I would like to, but how could I finish it’. (Quoted in Carmen Berenguer, Bobby Sands Desfallece en muro, p.119; quoted by Bárbara Fernández Melleda in The Irish Times, 5 May 2016.)
Translations, The Diary of Bobby Sands (1981), trans. as Bobby Sands, Tagebuchaufzeichnungen der ersten 17 tage seines Hungerstreiks, Vorw. Danny Morisson; Nachw. anti-H Block Armagh Komitee (1981); also One Day in My Life (1983), trans. as Ein Tag in meinim Leben, mit einem,Vorw. des Friedensboblepreisträgers Sean MacBride (Hamburg Ver. am Galgenberg 1985), 110pp.
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Criticism
|
See also Carmen Berenguer, Bobby Sands desfallece en el muro (Santiago de Chile: Carmen Berenguer 1985) [a tribute poem]. |
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Notes
The Cruiser: John M. Feehan, Bobby Sands and the Tragedy of Northern Ireland (Mercier Press 1983), received hostile review from Conor Cruise O’Brien in New York Review of Books.
Michael Fassbender: Fassbender discusses his initial contact with Steve McQueen leading to the production of Hunger (2008) in “Dangerous Methods”, a THR interview on YouTube - online; accessed 04.01.2012.
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