Remembering Bobby Sands

It was twenty Five years ago this day that Bobby Sands, the Irish Republican hunger striker, passed away after over a month on hunger strike.

In his time, he and his nine comrades on hunger strike, galvanized support for their demands to be seen and treated as political prisoners, as opposed to criminals. Their plight highlighted the struggle of Irish nationalists and republicans in the north of Ireland to remove the British presence from their country and finally grant them that most basic right, the right to self determination.

It was while on hunger strike that Bobby Sands ran and won the race to become a member of Parliament, putting the British in the awkward position of having a sitting MP on hunger strike in prison. The successful act of running and winning the Parliament seat awakened the Irish Republican conscious to the possibility of waging their struggle through politics. It could be said that this event was one of the first steps down the long road of the peace process, which accompanied the rising tide of republicans in politics through the political party Sinn Fein (We Ourselves). Today, Sinn Fein is the largest republican and nationalist party in the north of Ireland, pursuing its goals of a united socialist and democratic Ireland through politics, both north and south of the border. Bobby Sands' role in the transformation of the Irish Republican Movement from physical force to politics cannot be underestimated.

May he rest in peace.