Today is the 40th anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands…

Many moons ago I was chatting with a fella in a bar about the 27 club. Music fans will know 27 is the age many famous rock stars such as Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison left this mortal coil. The fella was of the Republican persuasion and he added Bobby Sands to the list. Bobby Sands was actually quite a talented songwriter and poet. His most well-known songs include “Back Home in Derry” (the melody borrowed from Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”), and “McIlhatton” about the legendary Poitín maker from the Glens of Antrim.

The hunger strike is an old republican technique that has never lost its shock value. It requires extreme mental discipline to starve yourself to death over 66 days.

But there is a lot more to Bobby Sands than the guy on the gable wall. When he was younger he ran with Willowfield Temperance Harriers in East Belfast as well as playing with the religiously mixed Stella Maris football club. If it was not for the Troubles who knows what would have become of him?

There has always been controversy over the hunger strikes: was there a deal offered? Were some hunger strikers sacrificed for electoral gain?

The latest twist is a report from Anthony McIntryre on his Pensive Quill site that alleges that his last wishes were not made known to his family. The Newsletter has a good overview. In a ‘comm’ from prison, Bobby Sands said that he did not want to be buried in Milltown cemetery or in a shroud. Whatever the truth, it is another in a long line of arguments over the years about this period of our history and how the legacy of Bobby Sands has been handled.

Whatever your views on Bobby Sands, whenever I see the coverage of the funeral on TV all I can think of is the little boy who grew up without a father and the father who never got to see his little boy grow up. And that for me is the real tragedy of the story.

“Bobby Sands mural” by Richard Leeming is licensed under CC BY-SA

Brian O'Neill

Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.