Bobby Sands, an imprisoned Irish Catholic militant, passed away on May 5, 1981, after a 66-day hunger strike protesting his designation as a criminal instead of a political prisoner by British authorities.
His death sparked immediate and widespread rioting in Belfast, where young Irish-Catholic militants engaged in clashes with police and British Army patrols, setting fires in the process.
Born in 1954 into a Catholic family in a predominantly Protestant area of Belfast, Northern Ireland, Bobby Sands experienced forced relocation due to sectarian violence in 1972. This move to a Catholic neighborhood led to his recruitment by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Established in 1969 following a split from the Official IRA, the Provisional IRA supported the use of violence and terrorism to achieve Northern Ireland’s independence from British rule. (The prevalent faction is commonly known simply as the IRA.)
The IRA envisioned that an independent Northern Ireland would merge with the Republic of Ireland to form a socialist Irish republic. In 1972, Sands faced arrest and was convicted for involvement in multiple IRA robberies. Consequently, due to his convictions linked to IRA activities, he received “special category status” and was transferred to a prison resembling a prisoner of war camp, where inmates enjoyed freedom of dress and movement within the facility. He remained there for four years.
After spending less than a year out of prison, Sands was re-arrested in 1977 for possessing a firearm near an IRA bombing site and sentenced to 14 years. Under a “criminalization” policy enacted by the British government in 1976, he was classified as a dangerous criminal and imprisoned in Maze Prison, situated south of Belfast. Over the following years, Sands, along with other incarcerated IRA members, protested for the restoration of rights and privileges that had been stripped away.
In 1980, a hunger strike persisted for 53 days until it ended when one of the strikers fell into a coma. Although the British government offered minor concessions to the inmates, they did not fulfill all their promises, leading to renewed protests. While Sands did not actively participate in the 1980 strike, he served as the IRA-appointed leader and spokesperson for the protesting inmates.
On March 1, 1981, marking the fifth anniversary of the criminalization policy, Bobby Sands initiated a new hunger strike.
He consumed only water and salt, witnessing his weight plummet from 70 to 40 kilos. Two weeks into the strike, another protester joined him, followed by two more six days later.
Amidst the hunger strike, on April 9, Sands was elected to fill a vacant seat in the British Parliament representing Fermanagh and South Tyrone in Northern Ireland. In response, Parliament enacted legislation disqualifying convicts serving prison sentences from parliamentary eligibility. His election, coupled with fears of violence following his death, garnered international attention toward Sands’ protest.
During the final week of his life, Pope John Paul II sent a personal envoy to persuade Sands to end his strike, but he remained steadfast. Falling into a coma on May 3, he died in the early hours of May 5. In the days following, violence erupted in Belfast, and tens of thousands attended his funeral on May 7.
After Sands’ death, the hunger strike persisted, resulting in the deaths of nine additional men before it concluded on October 3, 1981, under pressure from families of the prisoners and Catholic Church leaders. Following the strike, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s administration conceded to some demands from the protesters, including the right to wear civilian clothing and to receive mail and visits. Moreover, prisoners were granted greater freedom of movement and faced fewer severe penalties for refusing prison labor.
Nonetheless, official recognition of their political status was ultimately not granted.
