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<\/p>\nThe statue of the IRA hunger striker, who was 27 and an MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone when he died in 1981, was unveiled last year at the Republican Memorial Garden in Twinbrook, west Belfast.<\/p>\n
It then emerged that it had been erected without planning permission, although Belfast City Council had not previously taken any action.<\/p>\n
A DUP motion before the council on Thursday calling for the matter to be \u201creconsidered\u201d was passed, with support from other unionists and the Alliance Party.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Members of the public attend the unveiling of the first Bobby Sands statue in Gardenmore Road, Belfast (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n
News in 90 seconds – Sunday May 3 <\/p>\n
A Sinn Fein amendment seeking a review of the \u201ccurrent enforcement status of all such structures\u201d across the council area was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
SDLP councillors abstained from the vote, after which west Belfast councillor Paul Doherty resigned from the party, stating that the statue of the IRA hunger striker \u201cholds real significance\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, people gathered at the Sands statue to mark 45 years since the republican\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Sinn Fein MLA Danny Baker said the hunger strikers, 10 of whom died during the 1981 Maze Prison hunger strike, had inspired \u201cmany generations and many generations here to come\u201d.<\/p>\n
He told the crowd: \u201cThe spirit of the prisoners (and) our communities can never be broken.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur opponents were shook to their core last year and will continue to be because we are on a path, a path to Irish unity, based on equality and rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s one very simple message I was asked to give today: the statue is going nowhere, not now and not ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinn Fein MLA Pat Sheehan told the crowd the emergence of the IRA was \u201ca direct response to the violent and repressive nature of the orange state, layered upon 800 years of British colonial occupation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say to unionists, save your lectures and your moralising for others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will commemorate our patriot dead in our own way.\u201d<\/p>\n
He compared unionists voting for a reassessment of the Sands statue to efforts by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s to \u201ccriminalise\u201d Sands.<\/p>\n
\u201cForty-five years later, today in 2026, those in unionism will also fail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis statue of Bobby Sands has pride of place and will have pride of place here in Twinbrook, in Bobby\u2019s home community for generations to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen all of us here today are dead and gone, and largely forgotten about, Bobby Sands will still be remembered. He and his comrades will remain a beacon of light for freedom-loving people everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The statue of the IRA hunger striker, who was 27 and an MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,23,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-466981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latest-news-ticker","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topstories","21":"tag-world","22":"tag-world-news","23":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116512889781454705","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}