Life
1954-1981; b. March, in Mewtownabbey; joined IRA 1972; five years sentence
in Long Kesh, Maze Prison, for possession of four guns; rearrested for
bombing of furniture factory, Sept. 1977; commenced fatal hunger-strike
1 March 1981; elected MP for Fermanagh-Tyrone with vote of 30,000 against
Harry West, Unionist, 9 April, 1981; died after hunger strike in protest
at non-political status of republican prisoners, 5 May; posthum. published
prison diary and poems, Skylark, Sing Your Lonely Song (1982),
intro. Ulick O’Connor. DIB
Works
The Diary of Bobby Sands, foreword by Danny Morrison (1981);
Skylark, Sing Your Lonely Song, intro. Ulick O’Connor (Mercier
1982); One Day in My Life, foreword by Sean MacBride (1983), Do.,
(Cork: Mercier 2001).
Criticism
David Beresford, Ten Dead Men: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike
(London: Grafton 1981).
Tom Collins, The Irish Hunger Strike (White Island Books 1986); Padraig O’Malley, Biting at the Grave: The Irish Hunger Strikers and the Politics of Despair (Beacon Press 1990).
Notes
The Diary of Bobby Sands (1981), trans. as Bobby Sands, Tagebuchaufzeichnungen
der ersten 17 tage seines Hungerstreiks Vorw. Danny Morisson; Nachw. anti-H
Block Armagh Komitee (1981); also One Day in My Life (1983), trans. as
ein Tag in meinim Leben, mit einem vorw. des Friedensboblepreisträgers
Sean MacBride (Hamburg Ver. am Galgenberg 1985), 110pp.
John M. Feehan, Bobby Sands and the Tragedy of Northern Ireland (q.d.),
received hostile review from Conor Cruise O’Brien in New York Review
of Books.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)