Bobby Sands - We Salute You!

As I woke up this morning I felt a strange sense of apprehension! Upon making my obligatory cup of coffee and switched on my battle scared laptop, I sat patiently waiting for it to stutter into life open my portal to cyber world! As the home page for the rebels yell flashed into focus, I became hypnotically fixated upon one solitary image on my home page:
000 DAYS 00 HRS 00 MINS 00 SECS UNTIL BOBBY SANDS 28TH ANNIV.
But Why Now, I Asked Myself? I added this widget several weeks ago ( March 1st, 66 days in fact!) as a gentle reminder to myself and my readers of this immortal date and it's significance for the cause.
As I starred blankly into the screen I unconsciously began quietly humming (as if driven by a primal gut instinct) the opening verse of the H- Block song!
'I am a proud young Irishman From Ulster's hill my life began A happy boy through green fields ran And I kept God's and man's laws But when my age was barely ten My country's wrongs were told again By tens of thousands marching men And my heart stared to their cause.' ~The H-Block Song~
Memories of those care free days growing up in this era came flooding back. As every juvenile Ógra Republican of that generation will tell you, learning and reciting Irish Republican Folk songs celebrating Ireland's fallen heroes (& heroines), was intrically entwined into growing up! Growing up, these songs re-inforced a serine sense of pride, passion and support for our countrymen's fight for cultural identity and ultimate Freedom.
I began to recollect snippets of that period of my childhood, when Bobby Sands both captivated and galvanised the mood of his people's struggle. I remembered wakening up every morning for school, having breakfast around the kitchen table, with one ear finely tuned into the news bulletins from the wireless in the corner, waiting for any scrap of related news!
Why did Maggie (NO!, NO!, NO!,) Thatcher and the British government feel not one ounce of compassion to these brave men of Ireland? How were Bobby Sand's and the other hunger strikers bearing up? And as the Hunger Strike intensified, How many men would have to give up their lives? Oh, cruel Britain when will they ever listen!
So I'll wear no convict's uniform Nor meekly serve my time That Britain might brand Ireland's fight 800 Years of crime ~The H-Block Song~
As the 1981 Hunger Strike gained national and international momentum in the press, on the ground revulsion deepened by the sheer gravity of what was happening began to grip our people. Everyone was effectively on an emotional roll coaster as they greeted the dawn of each new day with a mixture of trepidation, hope, sorrow, inevitability and optimism.
Snapping myself out of my trance I began to ponder what I was going to write for this article. Although I am relatively new to this new form of blog journalism, the old anecdotes of research, research, research..... kept resonating in my head. Over the course of the last few weeks, I had been compiling a multitude of useful related links from the wealth of available information online.
I had a preconception in my head of what/how I was going to write, but as with all well laid plans... I began sifting through the bookmarks that I had compiled. I realised what a wealth of dedicated websites, blogs were actually available online. A far cry from the days when the hunger strikers were subject to extenuating restrictions on their civil liberties. A point poignantly and vividly illustrated in the film Hunger. Bobby Sands and his comrades used pen names such as Marcella and a host of ingenious techniques to communicate their thoughts with the outside world. But these bureaucratic British censorships to the Freedom of Speech were also imposed on the outside as well including in various guises (e.g. Article 31). Are we again to bear witness to various guises of this infringement on basic human rights to rear it's vile head today, I wonder?
Instead I have decided to focus from a personal point of view and draw upon my own atypical experiences and emotions from that time. Every Irish nationalist will definitely agree with me about the indelible imprint this left upon us all, as a generation. None of us can possibly fathom the personal inner conviction and self determination required to drive a man/woman to that ultimate sacrifice! During that period of time from, 5th May to the 20th August 1981, nine more brave Irish men were to commit their lives to the Patriot Game. However, we can gain an invaluable insight to the inner most thoughts of a man, who gallantly lead his comrades into their final realm of this epic battle of will! His diaries which he compiled during the first 17 days of his fast for justice express exactly this! The very first inserts recites as:
'I am standing on the threshold of another trembling world. May God have mercy on my soul.' ~Bobby Sands~
The Hunger Strike
The role of the Hunger Strike has been both devisive and pivotal, through out Ireland's, (as one nation!), quest for Freedom, Equality & Fraternity. Between 1913-1920, over 1000 prisoners went on hunger strike alone. This was followed by consecutive IRA Hunger Strikes in 1920, 1923 and 1940. During the 1970's Irish prisoner's died on hunger Strike whilst being incarcerated in British prisons in England. This was followed by both the 1985-86 & 1995 INLA Hunger Strike's.
The 1981 Hunger Strike itself was proceeded by the 1980 Hunger Strike and followed five years of the Blanket and No Wash protests in The Maze and Armagh prisons. They were seen as the final and unequivocal acts of defiance towards British stubbornness regarding the granting of Irish Political Prisoner's status. Rather than delve to far into the complexities of this strategy, (because to try and afford them their the proper due consideration would only serve them an injustice), suffice to say that it effectively hinged on five simple but humanistic demands!:
The five demands were: (1) No prison uniform; (2) No prison work; (3) Free association; (4) Full remission; (5) Visits, parcels, and recreational/educational facilities.
Bobby Sands: A Personal Reflection
If there is one person from history who embellishes the exponents of that famous biblical phrase; 'all things to all men', ~1 Corinthians 9:22 (King James Version)~
one person immediately springs to mind, Bobby Sands!
His eternal youth, will be enshrined in Irish Republican folklore. His conviction as a secular martyr to our Fight for Freedom, has elevated to similar status of such iconic figures as, Parnell, Pearse, Connolly, Wolfe Tone et al....... a freedom-fighting Irish Republican revolutionary and a martyr for OUR cause! To you and I, the local work classing lad, thrust into the world spotlight, to take a stance against an Imperialist regime. To the British Government of that day and Democratic and Ulster Unionists, nothing but a mere common criminal and terrorist. To loyalists, a talismanic figure to be hated and scorned upon.
But most of all to me and my fellow constituents of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, he was OUR Member of Parliament, OUR martyr for the cause and above all OUR first voice against 800 years of Imperialist oppression
I will leave you to quietly contemplate and reflect upon on what Bobby Sand's means to YOU with this final insert from his diaries:
[Ní bhrisfidh siad mé mar tá an fonn saoirse, agus saoirse mhuintir na hÉireann i mo chroí. Tiocfaidh lá eigin nuair a bheidh an fonn saoirse seo le taispeáint ag daoine go léir na hÉireann ansin tchífidh muid éirí ná gealaí.]
[They won't break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then that we will see the rising of the moon.]