38 Facts About Bobby Sands

Robert Gerard Sands was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland.

Bobby Sands helped to plan the 1976 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing in Dunmurry, which was followed by a gun battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Bobby Sands was arrested while trying to escape and sentenced to 14 years for firearms possession.

Bobby Sands was the leader of the 1981 hunger strike in which Irish republican prisoners protested against the removal of Special Category Status.

Bobby Sands was born in Dunmurry in 1954 to John and Rosaleen Bobby Sands.

Bobby Sands's younger sisters, Marcella and Bernadette, were born in 1955 and 1958, respectively.

Bobby Sands had a younger brother, John, born in 1962.

Bobby Sands was a member of this club and played left-back.

Bobby Sands left school in 1969 at age 15, and enrolled in Newtownabbey Technical College, beginning an apprenticeship as a coach builder at Alexander's Coach Works in 1970.

Bobby Sands worked there for less than a year, enduring constant harassment from his Protestant co-workers, which according to several co-workers he ignored completely, as he wished to learn a meaningful trade.

Bobby Sands was eventually confronted after leaving his shift in January 1971 by a number of his coworkers wearing the armbands of the local Ulster loyalist tartan gang.

Bobby Sands was held at gunpoint and told that Alexander's was off-limits to "Fenian scum" and to never come back if he valued his life.

Bobby Sands later said that this event was the point at which he decided that militancy was the only solution.

In late 1971 while working as a barman at the Glen Inn, Sands approached a man who he knew to be connected to the IRA and told him he would like to join; the man told Bobby to think it over as things in Rathcoole were bad and Catholics in the area were very isolated.

Later that year, the same man from the pub spotted Bobby playing football on a pitch near the Sands house.

Bobby Sands left the game on the spot, changed clothes and took the gun.

Bobby Sands soon recruited some of his mates into a small auxiliary unit of about six or seven volunteers.

Bobby Sands was arrested and charged in October 1972 with possession of four handguns found in the house where he was staying.

Bobby Sands was convicted in April 1973, sentenced to five years imprisonment, and released in April 1976.

Immediately after his sentencing, Bobby Sands was implicated in a fight and sent to the punishment block in Crumlin Road Prison.

Bobby Sands refused to wear a prison uniform, so was kept naked in his cell for twenty-two days without access to bedding from 7.30 am to 8.30 pm each day.

In late 1980, Bobby Sands was chosen Officer Commanding of the Provisional IRA prisoners in the Maze Prison, succeeding Brendan Hughes, who was participating in the first hunger strike.

The 1981 Irish hunger strike started with Bobby Sands refusing food on 1 March 1981.

Bobby Sands decided that other prisoners should join the strike at staggered intervals to maximise publicity, with prisoners steadily deteriorating successively over several months.

Bobby Sands died in prison less than a month later, without ever having taken his seat in the Commons.

The enactment of the law, as a response to the election of Bobby Sands, consequently prevented other hunger strikers from being elected to the House of Commons.

Bobby Sands died on 5 May 1981 in the Maze's prison hospital after 66 days on hunger strike, aged 27.

Bobby Sands became a martyr to Irish republicans, and the announcement of his death prompted several days of rioting in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland.

Cardinal Basil Hume, head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, condemned Bobby Sands, describing the hunger strike as a form of violence.

Many French towns and cities have streets named after Bobby Sands, including Nantes, Saint-Etienne, Le Mans, Vierzon, and Saint-Denis.

The Ledger quoted Bobby Sands as saying "If I die, God will understand" and "Tell everyone I'll see them somewhere, sometime".

The Iranian government renamed Winston Churchill Boulevard, the location of the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Tehran, to Bobby Sands Street, prompting the embassy to move its entrance door to Ferdowsi street to avoid using Bobby Sands Street on its letterhead.

The death of Bobby Sands resulted in a new surge of IRA activity and an immediate escalation in the Troubles, with the group obtaining many more members and increasing its fund-raising capability.

The Grateful Dead played the Nassau Coliseum the following night after Bobby Sands died and guitarist Bob Weir dedicated the song "He's Gone" to Bobby Sands.

Bobby Sands married Geraldine Noade while in prison on robbery charges on 3March1973.

Bobby Sands's sister, Bernadette Bobby Sands McKevitt, is a prominent Irish republican.

Bobby Sands was a founding member of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement in 1997.

Bobby Sands did not die for nationalists to be equal British citizens within the Northern Ireland state.