On May 5, 1981, after 66 days on hunger strike, republican prisoner Bobby Sands died in the H-Block prison hospital at Long Kesh. By the time the prison hunger strike ended on October 3, 1981, 10 young men had starved themselves to death. The hunger strike was a last effort by the inmates to be recognized as political prisoners. The protest had started in 1976, when the … [Read more...] about Remembering Bobby Sands and the Nine Other Men Who Died on Hunger Strike
Bobby Sands
Omagh Suspect’s Trial Date Set
The trial of the alleged leader of the "Real IRA," Michael McKevitt, is expected to go ahead in February. McKevitt is the first man in Ireland to be charged with directing terrorist activities and faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The dissident republican, who is married to Bernadette Sands, the sister of hunger striker Bobby Sands, is said to have led the gang … [Read more...] about Omagh Suspect’s Trial Date Set
New York Remembers Bobby Sands
Plans to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of hunger striker Bobby Sands on May 5 in New York, have Unionists hot under the collar. The Irish papers reported that Gerald Kelly, the Belfast painter who together with other artists will create a mural to Sands, had been given a $75,000 grant from the City of New York. Sammy Wilson, the Democratic Unionist Lord … [Read more...] about New York Remembers Bobby Sands
English or Irish?
My south London schoolmates and I struggled with our Irishness during the 1970s. Nearly all of us had Irish parents who had settled in England in the 1940s and 1950s, but we had been born and raised in London. Did that make us English or Irish? Most of us made regular summer trips to Ireland, looked Irish, even knew a few Irish words. Some of us just felt Irish – all our … [Read more...] about English or Irish?