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Statue of Bobby Sands to be unveiled
On May 4 at 3pm, a statue of Bobby Sands will be unveiled in
the Republican Memorial Garden in Twinbrook, where Bobby lived. The organisers
of the event, all local republican activists and all inspired by the courage
and self-sacrifice of Bobby and his comrades, have worked hard over recent
years to raise the funds for the statue. Former hunger striker Pat Sheehan who
spent 55 days on the 1981 hunger strike will speak about Bobby and his comrades
who died.
There will also be a Bobby Sands Mountain Walk that morning
and the annual Bobby Sands lecture will be given that evening by Pat Sheehan in
the Andersonstown Social Club.
Bobby was the first of ten republican hunger strikers to die
during the H-Block hunger strike of 1981. He died on May 5. The others were:
Francis Hughes; Raymond McCreesh; Patsy O’Hara; Joe McDonnell; Kieran Doherty
TD; Kevin Lynch; Martin Hurson; Tom McElwee; and Mickey Devine. Nor should we
forget Michael Gaughan 1974 and Frank Stagg 1976 who died on hunger strike in
prisons in England.
I knew Bobby and Francie Hughes, Kieran Doherty and Joe
McDonnell. I also met Tom McElwee and Mickey Devine on a visit to the
prison hospital in July 1981. They were all ordinary young working class men.
Joe McDonnell at 30 was the eldest. The rest were all in their 20s. In
extraordinary times they revealed a depth of resolve that few are ever called
upon to demonstrate.
I first met Bobby in Cage 11 of Long Kesh. It was almost
certainly at one of the political discussion groups I set up. One of the Nissan
huts was a Gaeltacht where those, like Bobby, who wished to live through the
medium of the Irish language resided.
Bobby was very interested in the political debates and
discussions and became an avid reader of the books, many of which we got from
old Joe Clarkes Book Bureau in Dublin and from The Connolly Association in
London. The prison regime banned political books from coming in but as ever we
and our friends and family outside rose to the challenge and replaced the
covers with more innocuous titles. The screws tended to ignore the books of
Zane Grey and other western writers.
Bobby was also big into sport. There were two all-weather
pitches where prisoners could play football or soccer or simply go out for a
run. Running around the pitch was better than the relatively small Cages.
I got to know Bobby well during that time. He was an
intelligent, committed republican who was open to new ideas. Many of our
discussions focussed on how we could turn passive support into activism. He
also instinctively understood the need for strategies and for a greater focus
on political activism – of building and using political strength. It was at
this time that Bobby picked up on the concept of everyone having a role in the
struggle, no matter how small.
He had a deep interest in international
struggles. Unbeknownst to us our struggle attracted similar interest in
Latin America, in the Palestinian refugee camps, the South African
townships and in the front line training camps of uMkhonto weSizwe –
Spear of the Nation – where ANC activists were training for operations against
the apartheid South African regime.
Bobby was to become a historic figure for ANC activists,
including Nelson ‘Madiba’ Mandela. Madiba was on Robben Island when Bobby
died. In his cell, in common with all political prisoners, he was allowed
as a privilege a calendar on which he marked significant events. On the 5th May
1981 a simple single line is written: ‘IRA martyr Bobby Sands
dies.’ A tribute, hand written, on a paper calendar on a cell wall in
South Africa which recognised the bond between those of us engaged in freedom
struggles.
Bobby was also a writer, a poet, and a musician and writer
of songs. Bobby wrote about the horrors of the H-Blocks. His smuggled comms-
letters; poems; songs articles; and creative pieces about the brutal reality of
life for political prisoners and of British rule.
Bobby spent one third of his 27 years in prisons. He
was never interviewed on television or radio and yet his name is known and
honoured around the world.
His writings tell us much about the man. His poem, The
Refugees, is appropriate in the context of the ongoing genocide in the west
Bank and Gaza and the anti-refugee feelings being engendered by right wing
elements in our own country, particularly in Dublin. Bobby’s poem is about the
events of August 1969 when thousands became refugees as a result of the
unionist pogrom.
The Refugees
A hurried worried people, a human stampede to God knows
where,
Were spat out from the back streets, for God knows who to
care.
Their little kitchen houses lit up the night around about
‘For God and Ulster’ was the reason that the refugees
were driven out.
Oh little humble homes where the people hugged the open
fire,
Oil-clothed floors and little ornamented cabinets that
the neighbours would admire,
The little backyard havens where the youngsters would
play
And in the hall the little font of holy water to bless
you on your way!
They were little narrow streets where the door was never
closed,
Where the characters and folklore were born and not
composed,
And where, by the street lamp by the corner, the children
made a swing
In a concrete jungle were the hoker was the king.
Oh a kindly people, too clannish were they not,
A simple cup of tea or the milkman’s price, were things
that weren’t forgot,
And when there was trouble sure didn’t all of them muck
in,
Wouldn’t every man amongst them go out and get stuck in.
Ah sure some returned; others? God knows where they’ve
gone,
Driven out in terror by that bigoted orange throng.
‘Tis well I recall those hurried worried people, their
little mansions burnt down,
As I watched them go in their thousands on the road to
Gormanstown.
Pope Francis
The funeral last Saturday of Pope Francis was an occasion to
mourn the passing of a leader who championed progressive causes, stood up for
those most marginalised and vulnerable while opening the door to reform within
the Church.
There is much more to be done to make the Church democratic.
I am among those who are alienated by the deep absence of equality in the
Church’s structures. Banning women from the priesthood is totally
unacceptable as is the opulence of some institutions and the unaccountability
of church leaders, particularly over the treatment of children and vulnerable
people. But still there are good priests and nuns and many decent people
doing their best to make amends.
They include Pope Francis. The many stories of his deep
sense of compassion for the sick and vulnerable and those who are victim of
abuse and violence have filled the airwaves and social media since his death.
His loss is a huge blow to the institutional Church which often seems aloof to
the trials and tribulations of ordinary people while being less than open about
the sins of some within its own ranks.
In his 12 years as leader of the Catholic Church Pope
Francis frequently spoke out against inequality, injustice, climate justice,
militarism and he was especially vocal in his rejection of those who scapegoat
migrants and erect barriers to them. "Migrants and refugees” he told
the Vatican's World Day of Migrants and Refugees in 2013 “are not pawns on the
chessboard of humanity." He said: “They are children, women, and men who
leave or are forced to leave their homes for various reasons, who share a
legitimate desire for knowing and having, but above all for being
more."
But it was his unstinting solidarity for the people of
Palestine that will mark out the last years of his Papacy. For almost 18 months
following Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip the Pope phoned the Holy Family
Church every evening to speak to those who sheltered there. He continued to do
so even when he was in hospital.
On Easter Sunday, in his last public remarks Pope Francis
condemned the “deplorable humanitarian situation” in Gaza. He urged Israel and
Hamas to “call for a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a
starving people that aspires to a future of peace.” Ar dheis Dé go raibh a
anam dílis
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