Bobby Sands (born March 9, 1954, Rathcoole, Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland—died May 5, 1981, HM Prison Maze, near Lisburn, Northern Ireland) was an officer of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) who rose to international prominence in 1981 when he embarked on a fatal hunger strike while imprisoned for activities related to the IRA’s armed campaign against the British government.
Sands’s rough childhood, which included several assaults by unionist paramilitaries and local Protestant gangs, led to his decision to volunteer for the IRA in 1972. Sands was arrested twice, the first time for weapons possession, in 1972, and imprisoned at Long Kesh Detention Centre as a “special category” prisoner due to his involvement with the IRA. The special category status acknowledged a sort of political status and granted those prisoners the right to wear their own clothing, “free” association with other special category prisoners, the right to organize their own educational and recreational activities, and access to visits and parcels once a week. While in prison, he met other leading IRA activists such as Gerry Adams, and Sands soon became a commanding officer of the IRA members at Long Kesh. He was known for his prolific knowledge of leftist political authors, such as George Jackson, Frantz Fanon, and Che Guevara, as well as several Irish socialists, such as James Connolly, and urged more socialist politics within the republican movement. While on remand, he married his girlfriend of several years, who was also the mother of his child.
After his release in April 1976, he quickly reintegrated into Irish republican activities, including numerous community organizing efforts. Sands and three other suspected IRA members were arrested six months later. He was then convicted of another weapons charge and sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment in Maze (formerly Long Kesh) prison.
During his second imprisonment, however, Sands found himself in a new situation. The British government, through a policy known as “criminalization,” had rescinded the special category status granted to republican prisoners. The British government attempted to publicly portray any republican activity as that of ordinary, and not political, criminals yet continued to rely on closed hearings, secret evidence, and extended detention without charges in order to gain convictions on suspected IRA members.
As a result of the criminalization policy, as well as rampant physical and verbal abuse by warders, many republican prisoners went on protest, culminating in their hunger strike less than five years later. The two main forms of protest, both of which Sands participated in, were known as the “blanket” and “dirty” protests, wherein protesting prisoners would only wear a blanket instead of prison uniforms and refused to wash.
Throughout this time, Sands grew quite popular among other protesting prisoners. Known by his pen name of “Marcella” (named after his sister), Sands contributed to the Sinn Fein newspaper, entertained other prisoners with recited and original stories (often told in Gaelic), and continued writing his own poetry. He also focused on his love for ornithology by tracking the birds outside his window.
Little progress was seen after five years of the blanket and dirty protests, which led to a decision to engage in a rolling hunger strike to the death. Sands, who advocated for use of the hunger strike, immediately volunteered and was chosen to lead the strikes, which began on March 1, 1981.
Sands’s hunger strike garnered both national and international attention, as well as public requests that the British government grant the prisoners’ demands. Arguably, the most significant development of the strike occurred when Sands entered the campaign for member of parliament (MP) for the Northern Ireland county of Fermanagh and South Tyrone. On April 10, after 41 days on hunger strike and much to the shock of the IRA leadership, Sands won the seat with more than 30,000 votes. His election sent shock waves throughout Ireland and the British government. After all, the British policy of criminalization depended on their assertions that the IRA had little public support and was a band of renegade criminals.
Despite Sands’s new political status as MP and increased public pressure, the British government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, refused to move an inch toward reconciliation. Sands’s condition continued to worsen and he remained imprisoned in the hospital ward of the prison. Eventually, on May 3, Sands lapsed into a coma. His family was called in to visit him, and on Tuesday, May 5, 1981, after 66 days on hunger strike, Sands died.
Sands’s death launched enormous reaction around the world; hundreds of thousands marched in support of the prisoners’ demands, a statement of “deep regret” was issued by the U.S. government, Irish unions waged strikes, newspapers around the world condemned the “callousness” of Thatcher to allow a fellow member of parliament to die, and riots flared up on the streets of Northern Ireland. His funeral procession was attended by more than 100,000 people. After Sands, nine more prisoners died before the hunger strike was finally called off on October 3, 1981. Shortly thereafter, reforms for all prisoners were granted that greatly met their demands.