Convicted terrorist died slowly, the end. Good news story
66 days is a decent documentary on his huger strike , well worth a watch.
I get kinda bemused by mentions or remembrances of Bobby Sands. The majority of people that support SF nowadays often say that they don’t care about the past. I’d suspect they’re telling the truth, they don’t, but I’d also suspect the overwhelming majority of them don’t care about Bobby Sands either. His death, his struggle, and almost certainly his birth date.
lá breithe shona duit
Tiocfaidh ar la. The H block song by The Blarney Pilgrims is an excellent song to mark the occasion. I worked with Bobby Sands cousin Ricky Hughes whilst in Toremollinos in 97, his brother Francis was also on H block and died during the hunger strikes. All thoughts go out to those who were oppressed by the British penal system.
There’s an inner thing in every man,
Do you know this thing my friend?
It has withstood the blows of a million years,
And will do so to the end.
It was born when time did not exist,
And it grew up out of life,
It cut down evil’s strangling vines,
Like a slashing searing knife.
It lit fires when fires were not,
And burnt the mind of man,
Tempering leadened hearts to steel,
From the time that time began.
It wept by the waters of Babylon,
And when all men were a loss,
It screeched in writhing agony,
And it hung bleeding from the Cross.
It died in Rome by lion and sword,
And in defiant cruel array,
When the deathly word was ‘Spartacus’
Along the Appian Way.
It marched with Wat the Tyler’s poor,
And frightened lord and king,
And it was emblazoned in their deathly stare,
As e’er a living thing.
It smiled in holy innocence,
Before conquistadors of old,
So meek and tame and unaware,
Of the deathly power of gold.
It burst forth through pitiful Paris streets,
And stormed the old Bastille,
And marched upon the serpent’s head,
And crushed it ‘neath its heel.
It died in blood on Buffalo Plains,
And starved by moons of rain,
Its heart was buried in Wounded Knee,
But it will come to rise again.
It screamed aloud by Kerry lakes,
As it was knelt upon the ground,
And it died in great defiance,
As they coldly shot it down.
It is found in every light of hope,
It knows no bounds nor space
It has risen in red and black and white,
It is there in every race.
It lies in the hearts of heroes dead,
It screams in tyrants’ eyes,
It has reached the peak of mountains high,
It comes searing ‘cross the skies.
It lights the dark of this prison cell,
It thunders forth its might,
It is ‘the undauntable thought’, my friend,
That thought that says ‘I’m right!’
Before celebrating a member of the IRA, worth remembering he killed 4 people and injured 17 more with horrific injuries with a bomb in a revenge attack.
Also remembering that 2 of his victims were were 17 months and two years old.
“Who is Ireland’s Enemy”, a 1914 poem by Brian O’Higgins
Oh, who is Ireland’s enemy?
Not Germany, nor Spain,
Not Russia, France nor Austria;
They forged for her no chains,
Nor quenched her hearths,
Nor razed her homes,
Nor laid her altars low,
Nor sent her sons to tramp the hills
Amid the winter snow.
Who murdered kingly Shane O’Neill?
Who poisoned Owen Roe?
Who struck Red Hugh O’Neill down?
Who filled our land with woe
By night and day – a thousand times,
In twice four hundred years –
Till every blade of Irish grass
Was wet with blood and tears
Who spiked the heads of Irish priests
On Dublin Castle’s gate?
Who butchered helpless Irish babes,
A lust for blood to sate?
Who outraged Irish maidenhood,
And tortured aged sires,
And spread from Clare to Donegal
The glare of midnight fires?
Who scourged our land in Ninety-Eight,
Spread torment far and wide,
Till Ireland shrieked in woe and pain,
And Hell seemed fair beside?
Who plied the pitch-cap and the sword,
The gibbet and the rack?
Oh God! that we should ever fail
To pay those devils back.
Who slew the three in Manchester,
One grim November dawn,
While ’round them howled sadistically
The Devil’s cruel spawn?
Who shattered many a Fenian mind
In dungeons o’er the foam,
And broke the loyal Fenian hearts
That pined for them at home?
Not Germany nor Austria,
Not Russia, France nor Spain
That robbed and reaved this land of ours,
And forged her heavy chains;
But England of the wily words –
A crafty, treacherous foe –
‘Twas England scourged our Motherland,
‘Twas England laid her low!
Rise up, oh dead of Ireland!
And rouse her living men,
The chance will come to us at last
To win our own again,
To sweep the English enemy
From hill and glen and bay,
And in your name, oh Holy Dead,
Our sacred debt to pay!
There’s streets named after him everywhere from the Middle East to the US, there’s murals to him across the world, there’s been films made about him, Rage Against The Machine dedicated their debut album to him, The Grateful Dead dedicated a concert to him the night he died, even people like Bernie Sanders, at the time an obscure politician in Vermont, penned a letter asking for his release. Even now you still have [tributes to him popping up places](https://www.irishcentral.com/news/irish-hunger-striker-tribute-new-york.amp)
I know there’ll always be people that have a different perspective about what happened here in Belfast but to think a man from the Falls Road who died at the age of 27 became an international icon for revolution makes you think about our island’s impact on the world.
Serious question for somebody who knows please: was he actually convicted of a crime?
Ah yes, blew up children for “the cause”
I always find the chorus from the song about Joe McDonnell gets to the heart of things:
“*And you dare to call me a terrorist, while you looked down your gun. When I think of all the deeds that you had done. You had plundered many nations, divided many lands. You had terrorised their peoples, you ruled with an iron hand. And you brought this reign of terror to my land*”
One word legend.
Who’s she?
Best forgotten
RIP Bobby, Forever Hungry <3
Honestly impressed at all the comments about him killing toddlers on here considering all you’d have to do is read to the end of the one Wikipedia article you read on the matter to know you’re wrong.
I’m sore MN ember we had a minute silence at my school when he died. Local comprehensive eou ok d you believe. Would not happen today.
With the late Margaret Thatcher in power the hunger strikers never stood a chance as they fought to be recognised as political prisoners, as Irish men fighting those who occupied Irish soil,she let hardworking coal miners nearly starve, memories of bloody sunday and atrocities committed to Irish people by British forces will forever be scorched in the minds of those who remember them Rest in peace now Bobby you will never be forgotten
I know nothing about this but I do remember my mother was worried that the hunger strikers were sort of forced to do that under threat of their families being hurt. In other words, they were forced to comply with the protest. That’s a theory. No fact or true knowledge.
24 comments
[deleted]
Convicted terrorist died slowly, the end. Good news story
66 days is a decent documentary on his huger strike , well worth a watch.
I get kinda bemused by mentions or remembrances of Bobby Sands. The majority of people that support SF nowadays often say that they don’t care about the past. I’d suspect they’re telling the truth, they don’t, but I’d also suspect the overwhelming majority of them don’t care about Bobby Sands either. His death, his struggle, and almost certainly his birth date.
lá breithe shona duit
Tiocfaidh ar la. The H block song by The Blarney Pilgrims is an excellent song to mark the occasion. I worked with Bobby Sands cousin Ricky Hughes whilst in Toremollinos in 97, his brother Francis was also on H block and died during the hunger strikes. All thoughts go out to those who were oppressed by the British penal system.
There’s an inner thing in every man,
Do you know this thing my friend?
It has withstood the blows of a million years,
And will do so to the end.
It was born when time did not exist,
And it grew up out of life,
It cut down evil’s strangling vines,
Like a slashing searing knife.
It lit fires when fires were not,
And burnt the mind of man,
Tempering leadened hearts to steel,
From the time that time began.
It wept by the waters of Babylon,
And when all men were a loss,
It screeched in writhing agony,
And it hung bleeding from the Cross.
It died in Rome by lion and sword,
And in defiant cruel array,
When the deathly word was ‘Spartacus’
Along the Appian Way.
It marched with Wat the Tyler’s poor,
And frightened lord and king,
And it was emblazoned in their deathly stare,
As e’er a living thing.
It smiled in holy innocence,
Before conquistadors of old,
So meek and tame and unaware,
Of the deathly power of gold.
It burst forth through pitiful Paris streets,
And stormed the old Bastille,
And marched upon the serpent’s head,
And crushed it ‘neath its heel.
It died in blood on Buffalo Plains,
And starved by moons of rain,
Its heart was buried in Wounded Knee,
But it will come to rise again.
It screamed aloud by Kerry lakes,
As it was knelt upon the ground,
And it died in great defiance,
As they coldly shot it down.
It is found in every light of hope,
It knows no bounds nor space
It has risen in red and black and white,
It is there in every race.
It lies in the hearts of heroes dead,
It screams in tyrants’ eyes,
It has reached the peak of mountains high,
It comes searing ‘cross the skies.
It lights the dark of this prison cell,
It thunders forth its might,
It is ‘the undauntable thought’, my friend,
That thought that says ‘I’m right!’
Before celebrating a member of the IRA, worth remembering he killed 4 people and injured 17 more with horrific injuries with a bomb in a revenge attack.
Also remembering that 2 of his victims were were 17 months and two years old.
“Who is Ireland’s Enemy”, a 1914 poem by Brian O’Higgins
Oh, who is Ireland’s enemy?
Not Germany, nor Spain,
Not Russia, France nor Austria;
They forged for her no chains,
Nor quenched her hearths,
Nor razed her homes,
Nor laid her altars low,
Nor sent her sons to tramp the hills
Amid the winter snow.
Who murdered kingly Shane O’Neill?
Who poisoned Owen Roe?
Who struck Red Hugh O’Neill down?
Who filled our land with woe
By night and day – a thousand times,
In twice four hundred years –
Till every blade of Irish grass
Was wet with blood and tears
Who spiked the heads of Irish priests
On Dublin Castle’s gate?
Who butchered helpless Irish babes,
A lust for blood to sate?
Who outraged Irish maidenhood,
And tortured aged sires,
And spread from Clare to Donegal
The glare of midnight fires?
Who scourged our land in Ninety-Eight,
Spread torment far and wide,
Till Ireland shrieked in woe and pain,
And Hell seemed fair beside?
Who plied the pitch-cap and the sword,
The gibbet and the rack?
Oh God! that we should ever fail
To pay those devils back.
Who slew the three in Manchester,
One grim November dawn,
While ’round them howled sadistically
The Devil’s cruel spawn?
Who shattered many a Fenian mind
In dungeons o’er the foam,
And broke the loyal Fenian hearts
That pined for them at home?
Not Germany nor Austria,
Not Russia, France nor Spain
That robbed and reaved this land of ours,
And forged her heavy chains;
But England of the wily words –
A crafty, treacherous foe –
‘Twas England scourged our Motherland,
‘Twas England laid her low!
Rise up, oh dead of Ireland!
And rouse her living men,
The chance will come to us at last
To win our own again,
To sweep the English enemy
From hill and glen and bay,
And in your name, oh Holy Dead,
Our sacred debt to pay!
There’s streets named after him everywhere from the Middle East to the US, there’s murals to him across the world, there’s been films made about him, Rage Against The Machine dedicated their debut album to him, The Grateful Dead dedicated a concert to him the night he died, even people like Bernie Sanders, at the time an obscure politician in Vermont, penned a letter asking for his release. Even now you still have [tributes to him popping up places](https://www.irishcentral.com/news/irish-hunger-striker-tribute-new-york.amp)
I know there’ll always be people that have a different perspective about what happened here in Belfast but to think a man from the Falls Road who died at the age of 27 became an international icon for revolution makes you think about our island’s impact on the world.
Serious question for somebody who knows please: was he actually convicted of a crime?
Ah yes, blew up children for “the cause”
I always find the chorus from the song about Joe McDonnell gets to the heart of things:
“*And you dare to call me a terrorist, while you looked down your gun. When I think of all the deeds that you had done. You had plundered many nations, divided many lands. You had terrorised their peoples, you ruled with an iron hand. And you brought this reign of terror to my land*”
One word legend.
Who’s she?
Best forgotten
RIP Bobby, Forever Hungry <3
Honestly impressed at all the comments about him killing toddlers on here considering all you’d have to do is read to the end of the one Wikipedia article you read on the matter to know you’re wrong.
I’m sore MN ember we had a minute silence at my school when he died. Local comprehensive eou ok d you believe. Would not happen today.
Just try to remember it all is all.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/president-recalls-abercorn-restaurant-bombing-in-belfast-on-50th-anniversary-1.4822604
With the late Margaret Thatcher in power the hunger strikers never stood a chance as they fought to be recognised as political prisoners, as Irish men fighting those who occupied Irish soil,she let hardworking coal miners nearly starve, memories of bloody sunday and atrocities committed to Irish people by British forces will forever be scorched in the minds of those who remember them Rest in peace now Bobby you will never be forgotten
I know nothing about this but I do remember my mother was worried that the hunger strikers were sort of forced to do that under threat of their families being hurt. In other words, they were forced to comply with the protest. That’s a theory. No fact or true knowledge.
He was a soldier. RIP
Just a joke buddy