Given the significant political developments in several of the Celtic countries over the past few days the poignant anniversary of a period when things did not look so optimistic for the Celtic people could be easily overlooked.

Today is the anniversary of the death, over a quarter of a century ago, of the leader of the republican hunger strikers, Bobby Sands.

Bobby Sands was serving a 14 year prison sentence following his conviction for possessing arms following a gun battle with police in 1976. He might have served his sentence with the same stoicism of countless of other republican prisoners had events in the early 1980s not catapulted him to prominence, first in Ireland and subsequently internationally.

In the 1970s republican prisoners in the infamous Maze prison (the H Blocks) had been involved in a series of protests which sought to regain a previous status they had achieved as political prisoners. This political status meant they were not subject to ordinary prison regulations. Their campaign had started with the "blanket protest" in 1976, when the prisoners refused to wear uniform and wore blankets instead.

Increasingly brutal attempts to break the protest of the republican prisoners led them to escalate their struggle to the "dirty protest" of 1978. Subsequently, in 1980, there was an initial hunger strike but this was ended when the British Government appeared to concede the prisoners' demands.

However, the British were disingenuous and once the strike was over, the British Government reverted to its previous stance. This led to a second hunger strike which started when Bobby Sands refused food on 1 March 1981. Other prisoners joined the strike at staggered intervals and this maximised publicity although the prisoners steadily deteriorated over several months.

Bobby Sands died on 5th May 1981. He was just 27 years old. His death and also the deaths of 9 other hunger strikers who were members of the Irish Republican Army and Irish National Liberation Army caused major revulsion around the world and there were protests on every continent.

Whilst on hunger-strike Bobby Sands was elected to the British parliament and its often claimed, particularly by British political commentators, that this period kick-started a process which led to the political consensus that has since emerged in Ireland. However, this is scarcely credible and it is clear that when Bobby Sands initiated his political moves he was pursuing a time-honoured process whereby imprisoned Republicans used the British political system to maximise the propaganda value of their protests. If that was his aim he succeeded dramatically and the International condemnation which the British government experienced following his death and the deaths of the other hunger strikers proves this.

Various shades of Irish republican and nationalist political opinion lay claim to the legacy of Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers. However one thing is clear. In taking the decision to confront the occupation of their country in the dramatic way that they did and subsequently paying the ultimate price they were seeking to achieve a straightforward objective - A FREE UNITED IRELAND - and that objective is still not achieved.

List of the hunger strikers with the date of their deaths in 1981

Bobby Sands MP IRA 5 May Francis Hughes IRA 12 May Raymond McCreesh IRA 21 May Patsy O'Hara INLA 21 May Joe McDonnell IRA 8 July Martin Hurson IRA 13 July Kevin Lynch INLA 1 August Kieran Doherty TD IRA 2 August Thomas McElwee IRA 8 August Michael Devine INLA 20 August

J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League

05/05/07

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