Bobby Sands: Martyr or Criminal?

GTB · Bobby Sands: Martyr or Criminal?

Nearly 30 years after his hunger strike death how is the IRA man and Member of Parliament, Bobby Sands best remembered? In this country I would imagine that the vast majority of people who remember the issues surrounding his death would say he is no more than a criminal trying to make a name for himself others, especially Irish nationalists, would say he a brave martyr of the struggle to achieve Irish freedom from the British.

His aims in carrying out his hunger strike (along with a dozen others) was to get recognition that all IRA prisoners should be recognised as prisoners of war rather than just criminals. Margaret Thatcher, who was Prime Minister at the time, refused to meet their demands and labelled them as nothing more than thugs and criminals.

In reflection of his death I can't decide whether I admire this man for his beliefs in dying a lingering death for something he believed in or that he purposely intended to cause a civil war between the Irish Republic and their sympathisers and the Northern Irish/British people. Maybe a bit of both. His death had more effect on Irish sympathisers than any IRA bombing campaign and is remembered with great affection even today. Some historical researchers have even compared his sacrifice as something akin to that of Gandhi.

jolou39

I remember a school trip to Calais in about 1980/1981 and every single wall had a poster stuck on it of Bobby Sands and the words Thatcher Assassin on it.

Personally I consider the IRA to have been terrorists - I have a large Irish Catholic famiy and although there was wrong on both sides I have little sympathy for an organisation that blew up elderly people at war memorials on Remembrance Sunday.......

GTB

I don't agree with the IRA campaign of terror it waged upon Britain. The bit I find interesting is the life of Bobby Sands. He wasn't a religious extremest hell bent on killing everybody as well as himself with the flick of a button, he decided to kill himself slowly - 66 days to be precise - to try to achieve his aims. What drives a 27 year old father to slowly kill yourself; the aim of creating a better life for your fellow inmates or the chance of some sort of martyrdom?