Instead he asked to be buried in the Republic, before apparently agreeing in a subsequent letter that he would be laid to rest in the republican plot at Belfasts Milltown Cemetery. [52] The Chicago Tribune wrote that"Mahatma Gandhi used the hunger strike to move his countrymen to abstain from fratricide. In 1961, after experiencing harassment and intimidation from their neighbours, the family abandoned the development and moved in with friends for six months before being granted housing in the nearby Rathcoole development. She said, that in the years that followed Mrs Sands "continued to support prisoners and their families" and was always there "when each of her children suffered". [3], In June 1972, Sands's parents' home was attacked and damaged by a loyalist mob and they were again forced to move, this time to the West Belfast Catholic area of Twinbrook, where Sands, now thoroughly embittered, rejoined them. 0. From belfasttelegraph.co.uk, On leaving school aged 16, he became an apprentice coach-builder and joined the National Union of Vehicle Builders and the ATGWU. In those days among youngsters, religion meant nothing. denounced her brother's former comrades from the pulpit. Aisling and Seamus Higgins are pictured at the film premiere of Bobby Sands: 66 Days at the Omniplex Cinema at the Kennedy Centre in west Belfast. He was later convicted of murder and he also spent 27 days on hunger strike in the Maze. Premium subscribers enjoy unlimited access to all articles. But he had been badly scarred by the sectarian strife and abuse his family had suffered at the hands of some loyalist neighbours many of whom had been his friends in Rathcoole. But he added: The only time I saw him down was when I visited him in jail after the first time he was sentenced. Rosaleen Sands follows her son Bobby's coffin. [42], Cardinal Basil Hume, head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, condemned Sands, describing the hunger strike as a form of violence. [21] The showroom was destroyed but as the IRA men left the scene there was a gun battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The funeral of Rosaleen Sands the mother of Bobby Sands takes place at St Oliver Plunkett's Church, Blackrock Co Louth Picture Mal McCann. The premiere was hosted with File An Phobail and West Belfast Film Festival. "Many claimed to know Rosaleen Sands (and she) figured in many books, films and documentaries that were written and produced by people who never met her," Mrs Sands-McKevitt said. bobby sands son gerard now. Three weeks later, he was kneecapped and when he recovered, his family moved to Australia. He knew that among this batch of new members, he had recruited at least one volunteer who would do anything for the IRA. "It was a choice that no mother could contemplate, but it was one that she had to make. Sands also threw himself into the struggle for political status for IRA prisoners, which had been halted when Long Kesh was replaced by the Maze Prison. In an editorial, The New York Times wrote that "Britain's prime minister Thatcher is right in refusing to yield political status to Bobby Sands, the Irish Republican Army hunger striker", but added that by appearing "unfeeling and unresponsive" the British Government was giving Sands "the crown of martyrdom". The melody of "Back Home in Derry" was borrowed from Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". When I heard out about it I was sick to the stomach.". Leaving behind two wounded, Seamus Martin and Gabriel Corbett, the remaining four (Sands, McDonnell, Seamus Finucane, and Sean Lavery) tried to escape by car, but were arrested. It was the largest spectacle Belfast ever saw. The screws battered us stupid before forcing us onto a wing with no windows. During Sands' strike, he was elected to the British Parliament as an Anti H-Block candidate. . [63] An official blue and white street sign was affixed to the rear wall of the British embassy compound saying (in Persian) "Bobby Sands Street" with three words of explanation "militant Irish guerrilla". Mrs Sands, the mother of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, died last week aged 95, surrounded by her family. Bobby's former cellmate 'Tomboy' Loudon was among those who travelled from across Ireland to pay their last respects at St Oliver Plunkett's Church at Blackrock, Co Louth. Picture by Mal McCann, Former SInn Fein councillor and Mayor Pat McGinn (right) at the funeral of Rosaleen Sands, the mother of Bobby Sands. It was the single biggest mistake they could have made. ", But she told mourners in Blackrock, Co Louth: "It was a trust that was breached. The premiere was hosted with File An Phobail and West Belfast Film Festival. Cookie Notice "She was a working class girl from a working class area and my mother never forgot her roots. Boyle, Mark. The premiere was hosted with File An Phobail and West Belfast Film Festival. He just couldnt sit still. Brendan Byrne, Fran Rowlatt McCormick, Ben Rowlatt McCormick, Andrew Tully and Trevor Birney are pictured at the film premiere of Bobby Sands: 66 Days at the Omniplex Cinema at the Kennedy Centre in west Belfast. The full weight of my body recoiled forward again, smashing my head against the corrugated iron covering around the gate."[26]. His parents were both raised in the Catholic slums of Belfast. Rathcoole was two-thirds Protestant and it followed that the majority of Bobby Sands friends on the estate were also Protestant. Sands, who supported Aston Villa, played for the religiously mixed Stella Maris and Star of the Sea clubs. [34] Sands died in prison less than a month later, without ever having taken his seat in the Commons. However, he noted that this was his personal view. [24], In late 1980, Sands was chosen Officer Commanding of the Provisional IRA prisoners in the Maze Prison, succeeding Brendan Hughes, who was participating in the first hunger strike. Bobby Sands: 66 Days movie reviews & Metacritic score: In the spring of 1981 Irish Republican Bobby Sands' 66-day hunger strike brought the attention of the world to his cause. In one of the most infamous incidents of The Troubles, Constable John Proctor was murdered by the IRA at a County Londonderry hospital in 1981 after visiting his newborn son while tensions were heightened throughout the country by the political situation. It also caused the Sands family to move home once more, this time to a house on Summerhill Road in the middle of the then still religiously mixed Twinbrook estate, near Dunmurry. W.D. [64][65] A burger bar in Tehran is named in honour of Sands.[66]. Meanwhile the producer of the film says it will be "challenging for all of us". A video of her performance was shared on Facebook by Shantelle Naomi and has been receiving scores of positive comments. British professor says Irish are making their tea wrong, NYPD Emerald Society president suspended without pay after failing drug test, U2 is from Ireland, not Scranton, which was a surprise to Billie Eilish, Irish faithful flock to Co Kerry church to see Padre Pio relic, US congressmen call for "full implementation" of the Good Friday Agreement, Irish whiskey exports reached record high of 1 billion in 2022, Go green this St. Patricks Day with these healthy recipes, Ireland ranked among the top 20 'most aesthetic' countries in the world. Bobby's son Gerard, Erin's father, was only seven years old when his father died. It was the summer of 1970 and we were bussed out to Feldon House from Belfast. Download this stock image: Bobby Sands funeral 1981 The Troubles 1980s his wife Geraldine Noade Sands and son Gerard Milltown cemetery Belfast Northern Ireland UK HOMER SYKES - GFT9MT from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors. [46] In Paris, thousands marched "behind a huge portrait of Sands, to chants of 'the IRA will conquer'". They were all give an opportunity to hold the weapon. A SISTER of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands has denounced his former comrades from the pulpit at their mother's funeral. Bobby Sands (Robert Gerard Sands) Sands was the firstborn son of a Roman Catholic family. It had been over two years since they or Bobby had last seen him. And on Thursday October 14, he was arrested again after a shootout with police following a bomb attack at the Balmoral Furniture Company in Dunmurry. The British Consulate at Ghent was raided. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye, Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland - 31st July 2016 Sands and Joe McDonnell planned the bombing of the Balmoral Furniture Company in Dunmurry on 14 October 1976. A month before he died on May 5 1981, Bobby Sands was elected to the Westminster Parliament to represent Fermanagh/South Tyrone. [60], 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 street to avoid using Bobby Sands Street on its letterhead. He was the leader of the 1981 hunger strike in which Irish republican prisoners protested against the removal of Special Category Status. Picture by Pacemaker, Bobby Sands' sisters Marcella and Bernadette beside the coffin of their mother Rosaleen (95) at the funeral in St Oliver Plunkett's Church, Blackrock, Co Louth. Bobby Sands was the first of 10 republican hunger strikers to die in the Maze prison in the same year. Thursday, 19 January 2023 | 0.3C Belfast, Menu Sections. Disqualification for membership of the House of ", The Belfast Telegraph is a member of IPSO and subscribes to its Editors' Code of Practice Exactly 40 years after Sands death, we have spoken to some of his closest friends and learned what turned the soccer-mad boy into a committed paramilitary who would spend almost all his adult life in prison before dying there on May 5 1981 at the age of 27. The premiere was hosted with File An Phobail and West Belfast Film Festival. He was the leader of the 1981 hunger strike in which Irish republican prisoners protested against the removal of Special Category Status. There was no way to count the crowd that started as a file 10 abreast and a half-mile long, then grew with every passing block to a surging, spreading flood that washed up and broke, finally, amidst the drizzle-darkened stones of a . He left school in 1969 at age 15, and enrolled in Newtownabbey Technical College, beginning an apprenticeship as a coach builder at Alexander's Coach Works in 1970. [38] The original pathologist's report recorded the hunger strikers' causes of death as "self-imposed starvation", amended to simply "starvation" following protests by the dead strikers' families. A local IRA chief approached Sands in Twinbrook and a few friends hed made playing football, asking them to attend a secret meeting in a house at Ormond Drive. Based at Greencastle on the Shore Road, Sands Star of the Sea team-mates included Raymond McCord, who comes from a Protestant background. Picture Mal McCann, A young boy carriess a picture of Bobby Sands at the funeral of Rosaleen Sands. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye, Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland - 31st July 2016 Bernadette Sands-McKevitt claimed that republicans ignored her brother's burial wishes following his death in the Maze in May 1981. The premiere was hosted with File An Phobail and West Belfast Film Festival. "My son Johnnie never had the chance to meet his father, he had no choice. "[51], The American media expressed a range of opinions on Sands's death. She wrote elsewhere that Erin performed the song in their local pub in Killough, Co Down and, not surprisingly, brought the place to a standstill. The bombing of bars, hotels, restaurants, robbing of banks, abductions, and killings of prominent figures are all criminal acts and must be dealt with by criminal law. Receive today's headlines directly to your inbox every morning and evening, with our free daily newsletter. On March 1, 1981, IRA prisoner Bobby Sands began a hunger strike which would earn him world-wide notoriety. But the adrenalin was still in us though and our spirits were high. [39], Sands became a martyr to Irish republicans,[40] and the announcement of his death prompted several days of rioting in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. Email us at Submit@IrishCentral.com! Picture by Mal McCann CLAIRE SIMPSON 06 May, 2021 03:00 A. 1. thora mahdavi. In 1978, after a number of attacks on prisoners leaving their cells to "slop out" (i.e., empty their chamber pots), this escalated into the "dirty protest", wherein prisoners refused to wash and smeared the walls of their cells with excrement. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye, Mary Nellis and Mary Kay Hinphey are pictured at the film premiere of Bobby Sands: 66 Days at the Omniplex Cinema at the Kennedy Centre in west Belfast. And his mum Rosaleens two sisters had also married Protestants. The premiere was hosted with File An Phobail and West Belfast Film Festival. And now Mr Proctor's furious widow has weighed into the deepening row over the Bobby. Her daughter Bernadette Sands-McKevitt said they "were an ordinary family, whose life was reshaped by extraordinary events". Bobby Sands's deliberate slow suicide is intended to precipitate civil war. Bobby left the game on the spot, changed clothes and took the gun. As I stepped out of the van on arrival there they grabbed me from all sides and began punching and kicking me to the ground they dragged me by the hair across a stretch of hard core rubble to the gate of the punishment block. He added: I only want to shoot Orangemen. The lad was told he wasnt suitable as an IRA recruit due to his sectarian views. He was arrested and charged in October 1972 with possession of four handguns found in the . Bernadette Sands-McKevitt claimed that republicans ignored her. Enter email address [17] This is when Bobby's involvement with the IRA began in earnest, according to O'Hearn: Sands soon recruited some of his mates into a small auxiliary unit of about six or seven volunteers. The premiere was hosted with File An Phobail and West Belfast Film Festival. Brendan Byrne, Professor Siobhan O'Neill, Professor Deirdre Heenan and Trevor Birney are pictured at the film premiere of Bobby Sands: 66 Days at the Omniplex Cinema at the Kennedy Centre in west Belfast. She is famous for Bobby Sands widow. The former deserved veneration and influence. Bobby Sands eight-year-old son Gerard at his fathers funeral. A letter written by Bobby Sands on cigarette paper which was smuggled out of the prison pictured at the exhibition. The premiere was hosted with File An Phobail and West Belfast Film Festival. Rita Harkin and Stephen Douds are pictured at the film premiere of Bobby Sands: 66 Days at the Omniplex Cinema at the Kennedy Centre in west Belfast. [6], Sands was born in Dunmurry in 1954 to John and Rosaleen Sands. Tomboy Loudon, Gerry Roche, Denis Donaldson and Bobby Sands pictured in the Long Kesh prison, Northern Ireland. Bobby Sands died on May 5, 1981 at the age of 27. Gardai maintained a low-key presence outside the church. But there is no doubt it was the dramatic increase in sectarian violence and intimidation of Catholics living in Rathcoole which had been built as a mixed estate which conditioned Sands changing attitudes. The event takes place next Wednesday, August 10 at 7.30pm in the Lisgoole Suite, Killyhevlin Hotel, Enniskillen. She was a founding member of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement in 1997. "She was an inspiration to us all and set a fine example to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.". Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye, Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland - 31st July 2016 His son Gerard, who maintains a low public profile, helped his uncle John and cousins carry Mrs Sands's coffin to the church. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye, Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland - 31st July 2016 bobby sands son gerard now. [35][36] The enactment of the law, as a response to the election of Sands, consequently prevented other hunger strikers from being elected to the House of Commons. At any point the UK government could have relented in the face of unprecedented pressure from the Irish people and international calls for a humane settlement. He was held at gunpoint and told that Alexander's was off-limits to "Fenian scum" and to never come back if he valued his life. Sands was a member of this club and played left-back. [19][20], Upon his release, he returned to his family home in West Belfast, and resumed his active role in the Provisional IRA. 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