Posted by Jim on May 8, 2017
Chris Fogarty with more on his claims about a mass grave in Dungannon, Co Tyrone.
The live-and-let-live people of Dungannon and district are as powerless today as their murdered relatives were during An t-Ár Mór (Nakba/Slaughter/Holocaust) of 1845-1850 when more than half of Britain’s army removed Ireland’s abundant foods at gunpoint.
When a courageous Dungannonite recently informed me of the finding of multiple human remains alongside Carland Road, Dungannon, between Drumglass High School and South Tyrone Hospital I contacted Tyrone and other northern newspapers urging the obvious first step; a publicly-visible layout of the perimeters of the two or three known mass graves of the old Dungannon workhouse to ensure that these, at least, were not affected. Community leaders could then proceed with an investigation of the source of the remains.
So I thought. The local councilor and reporters who wrote and phoned did not publish my letter but did act mystified; all but The Pensive Quill which did publish. Now it is clear why the perimeters of the known mass graves were not visibly-marked to protect them; the desecrated remains were Within those historically-significant mass graves.
Thus, their obliteration of a mass grave that was filled during a genocide serves to conceal the genocide itself. Has their desecration of Dungannon’s main mass grave of An t-Ár Mór completed the job, at least in Dungannon, of erasing it from history?
The intelligent comments of a Ms. Kilgallen on The Pensive Quill enabled me to acquire the 1910 Ordnance Survey Map showing the footprint of the Dungannon workhouse within its grounds (totaling 6-acres). After printing it, I accessed present-day Dungannon on google maps; both the streets map and the satellite map. Both are clear. The desecration was reported to be beside Carland Road between Drumglass High School and the South Tyrone Hospital.
So I asked google maps for the route between that school and hospital. It mapped two possible routes, one of 443 feet, the other of 475 feet; both walks of two minutes, and both are Through The Old Workhouse Grounds Where, As Workhouse Policy Islandwide, Deep Pits Were Dug, Into Which The Bodies Were Piled; with only a thin layer of soil over the topmost bodies.
A grave moral crime is underway; and it is abetted by the institutions of Dungannon town and Tyrone and other northern counties. Please take your own stands along with others against genocide and its cover-up.
Exercise whatever shred of power you have; demonstrate some respect for justice and for your own tragic history. Install (or get official permission for Mary and me to install) a reverent, truthful monument over the yet-undesecrated remnant of the Dungannon workhouse mass grave.
Perhaps concealment of genocide was to be expected, seeing that the same entities had similarly winked at the murderers of twenty-nine in Omagh much more recently. MI5/FBI Agent Patrick “Ed” Buckley had spent years in Ireland until demobilized the evening of 15 August 98. He had previously gotten the news media to falsely report IRA involvement in the Langert family murders in a Chicago suburb. Agent Buckley had assumed investigatory authority of that atrocity and had prohibited the police from pursuing their sole suspect, the murderer David Biro (whose 357 Magnum murder weapon belonged to FBI Agent Lewis who suffered no repercussions). There is no official nor new media interest in my offer of documented evidence of Agent Buckley’s earlier crimes that were repeated in Omagh; and I know why.
The same pattern of cover-up has transformed An t-Ár Mór (Holocaust) of 1845-1850 into a false “famine/gorta mor” slander of those murdered. Here-below is further proof that it was genocide; not famine. The people of Tyrone had produced an abundance of non-potato food crops in those years. There was no shortage of food; no famine.
Also, between 1900 and 1910 the British government bought out its landlords of Ireland (at above-market prices) and those not already domiciled in England, repatriated. Until the 1960s my father and all of his neighbors in Co. Roscommon (and the rest of Ireland?) were forced annually to amortize the landlords’ pay-offs.
Digitized copies of The (London) Times reported increased English landings of Irish food during the Holocaust; thus Christine Kinealy and other “famine” writers have ceased denying them. What is now kept concealed is the food removal and the evidence available within Ireland of that non-potato foodstuff. Below you will learn of Tyrone’s abundant foods while its people starved.
This is also a test to learn how adamantly the Tyrone and other news media conceal a genocide of their people. By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them.
1) Below are the names of 344 Tyrone townlands that contained processors of non-potato foods.
2) The first line of armed food removers were the constabulary totaling 12,900 island-wide. Their arms consisted of a short carbine with a spring-bayonet. The mounted constabulary also carried a brace of pistols in front of their saddles.
3) When the constabulary met significant resistance from the people, the local militia was summoned to enforce the removal. “Tyrone: During the 1st quarter of 1847 the 755-strong (650 pvts.) Royal Tyrone militia was headquartered in Caledon. Its Commander, The Earl of Caledon, signed “Caledon,” residing in Caledon, near the post town of Caledon, Co. Tyrone. Its Adjutant, William Lundie.” (WO Records, National Archives, Kew, Surrey).
4) When combined constabulary/militia forces met significant resistance the nearest army regiment was summoned. During those years (in approximate sequence) the 44th of Foot was available from Newry, the 92nd from Belfast and Enniskillen, 39th from Belfast and Enniskillen, 1st from Newry, 9th from Newry, 13th from Belfast, 35th from Enniskillen, and 39th from Belfast and Newry. (WO Records, National Archives, Kew, Surrey).
They removed livestock and meats; and other Tyrone crops grown and harvested by its people. Proof of Tyrone’s abundant foods are listed here-under.
Exhibit D2: Details of Exhibit D. (From my book))
These Ordnance Survey map data show the extent of non-potato foods in Ireland prior to the Holocaust. Each survey sheet covered 4 miles North/South by 6 miles East/West. See Exhibit D1 to learn that each county’s survey starts at the western side of its northernmost point and works eastward in 4-mile “thick” belts to the eastern boundary of the county upon completion of which it resumes at the western boundary, repeating the process until completion at the east side of its southernmost point. Bolded sheet nos. below indicate the start of a new West-to-East line of sheets. Before starting below see how the map of Co. Donegal (Exhibit D1) relates to Co. Donegal below. The reader can ascertain the location of each place-name below by its relative position between the survey’s start and end. In all cases “corn” means grain. “Shambles” were then market stalls for meat and other foods and goods. The following abbreviations are used: c = corn mill, k = corn kiln, f = flour mill, t = tuck mill, m = mill, b = brewery, d = distillery, wnd = windmill, c.store is where some grain was stored prior to shipment, store = storehouse, p = pound (impoundment of livestock), m = malt kiln (where grain that was wetted to induce germination is redried for use in brewing or distilling. Pounds and woolen mills are significant in that they indicate the local existence of livestock as a rich source of food. Map sheets show “0” if no such facilities exist on it. Map sheets are separated by the divider “|”.
TYRONE: 68 Sheets. Data as of 1833,34.
Sheet 1: old m in Magheramason|2:c in Milltown, and in Tullyard, k in Loughneas, old m in Coolermoney|3: c in Bunowen, old m in Binnelly|4: 0|5: 2c in Leckpatrick, c, 2k Knockabrack, b in Strabane, p in Woodend|6: 2c in Rousky, c in Aghafad, m in Ballynamallaght|7: c & k, t, p in Stranagalwilly|8: old still house (2) each isolated and high on mountain side|9: c in Clady, and in Donnygowen, k in Cladyhood|10: k in Edymore, in ligfordrum, in Knockiniller, and in Sessagh or Gallan|11: c in Glencoppogagh, and in Eden, 3k in Castledamph, 2k in Lower Drumnaspar, k in Meenagorp, in Meenagarragh, in Aghalane, and in Lisnacreaght|12: c & k in Cranagh, 4k, p in Glenroan, 4k in Lower Barnes, 2k in Glenchiel, k in Meenacrane, in Upper Barnes, in Quiggy, and in Garvagh|13: c, p in Sperrin, k in Carrowoaghtra|14: k in Croagh|15: malt k in Laughtfoggy, t in Mournbeg|16: c & k in Castlesessagh, 2c, p in Magheracreggan, c in Crew Upper, k in Killeen, p in Castlederg, and in Ballyfolliard|17: c, 2k in Ballyrenan, c in Killymore, k, p in Newtownstewart, k in Urbalreagh, and in Ballykeel, t in Birnaghs|18: c & k in Glenmacoffer, c, d in Gorteen, 2k in Dunbunrower, and in Meenadoo, k, p in Beltrim, k in Droit, in Liscabble, in Learden Lower, and in Lenamore|19: c, 3k in Teebane, c & k in Aghnamirigan, 4k in Gorticashel, 2k in Carnanransy, t in Attagh, k in Garvagh, in Drumlea, in Fallagh Lower, in Gorticashel Upper, in Altacamcosy, in Liggins, in Oaghmnicroy, and in Aghascrebagh|20: malt k in Broughderg|21: 0|22: k in Meenanoran, in Meenafergus, in Tullynashane, in Crighshane, and in Crighdenis|23: k in Gortnagross, and in Binnawooda, old malt k in Shanaghy, p in Killeter|24: c & k in Drumleggagh, c in Binnawooda, 2k in Meencargagh, k in Ardbarren Upper, in Aghasessy, and in Archill, m in Coolnacrunaght|25: c in Lisnacreaght, 2k in Envagh, k in Byturn, in Legland, in Cashty, in Beragh, and in Castletown|26: c, 3k in Dunbreen, c in Golan, and in Killins, 2k in Eskeradooey, k in Castleroddy Glebe, in Tirmurty, and in Glenawna|27: 2k in Formil, k, old k in Creggan, k in Crockanboy, old k in Aghalane|28: c in Corvanaghan|29: c, p in Gortin, c in Corchoney, in Knockaleery, and in Kildress, m in Tamlaght, p in Drumnacross Lower, and in Cookstown|30: w in Mullaghwotragh|31: c in Ballinderry|32: old k in Scraghy|33: c in Drumown, 2k, m in Coolavannagh, k in Drumnamalra, in Carrick, in Drumscragh, in Drummenagh, Legphressy, and in Carony, m in Drumquin|34: 2c, k in Gillygooly, c & k in Dunwish, c in Cloghog, 2k in Dressoge, k in Claraghmore, in Corlea, and in Cavanacaw Upper|35: b in Omagh, c & k in Ballynamullan, k in Killybrack, in Boheragh, in Crosh, in Lisboy, in Recarson, in Deroran, and in Faccary, p in Campsie (E of Omagh)|36: c & k in Faccary, and in Tiroony, c, 4k in Bracky, c, 2k in Loughmacrory, 3k, t in Drumnakilly, k in Mullanbeg, in Sulton, and in Granagh, p in Merchantstown Glebe|37: c in Killey, t in part of Gortindarragh, old c, old k in Tremoge|38: c in Mullynure, in Desertcreat, and in Tullywittan, m in Coolnahavil, p in The Sand Holes/Killyneedan, and in Tullyhog|39: c & k in Templereagh, c in Leck, and in Carnan, 2m in Edernagh|40: 0|41: c & k in Knocknahorn, k in Lettery, in Corbally, in Curraghamulkin, in Derrynaseeer, in Oughterard, in Aghadarragh, and in Dressoge|42: c in Tattysallagh, and in Shannaragh, 4k in Cornavarrow, and in Aghadulla/Harper, 2k in Tattymulmona, k in Drumlish, in Corrasheskin, in Knockaraven, in Mullenboy, in Aghadarragh, in Garvagh, in Aghadulla, in Blacksessagh, and in Fallaghearn|43: c & k in Ranelly, c in Moylagh, 2k in Dervaghroy, k in Tullyrush, in Donaghanie, in Raw, in Tattykeeran, and in Bancran, m in Blackfort, and in Edenderry|44: c & k in Cloghfin, c, p in Beragh, c in Foremass Lower, k, p in Sixmilecross, k in Ballintrain, and in Drumlester, old k in Derroge, p in Radergan|45: c in Dernaseer, k in Galbally|46: c & k in Lisnagowan, c in Crossdermot, b, m in Donaghmore, 2m in Drumreagh Otra, m in Dungorora, and in Kilmore|47: f in Gortnaskea, and in Gortin, m, p in Clintycracken, m in Meenagh, old m in Back Upper|48: 0|49: c, 2k in Tummery, c & k in Scallen, and in Shanmullagh East, 3k in Feglish, and in Esker, 2k in Moorfield, k in Drum, in Shanmullagh West, Brackagh, in Doocrock, in Lettergash, in Lisdoo, in Gargadis, in Moorfield, in Aghalarragh, in Aghee, in Cornamuck, in Newpark, in Dergany, in Crossan, in Keenoge, in Drumskinny, and in Glasmullagh North|50: c, 2k in Drumconnis, and in Rakeeranbeg, 3k in Rahony, 2k in Drumskinny, in Aghnamoe, in Lissaneden, in Meenagar, and in Cornamucklagh, k in Gardrum, in Ballyard, in Curly, in Glengeen, in Drumderg Glebe, in Tattycor, in Tullyclunagh, and in Stranisk, m in Tannagh More, p in Aghadarragh, and in Dromore|51: c & k in Seskinore, c in Lackagh, k in Letfern, and in Tatnadaveny, 2m in Kilnaheery, m in Belnagarnan, in Garvallagh, and Raveagh, p in Tamlaght|52: c & k in Artcloghfin, c in Garvaghy, k in Roscavey, and in Fallaghearn, p in Ballygawley|53: c in Farriter, m in Ballyreagh|54: d, p in Dungannon, c SE of Dungannon, wnd SW of Dungannon|55: old m in Tempanroe|56: 2c, k, p south of Trillick, c, 2k in Corlea, and in Golan Glebe, c & k in Drumsonnus, in Cordromedy, c, p in Corkragh, c in Derry, 2k in Cabragh, k, p in Cloncandra Glebe, k in Relaghguinness, in Carran, in Dreigh, and in Effernan Glebe|57: c & k in Tattymoyle Upper, 4k in Lifford, 3k in Moneygar, k, sheep fold in Killyblunick Glebe, k in Greenan, in Derrylea, in Carryglass, and in Stranisk|58: m in Carntallbeg, p in Aghintain, in Killaney Lower, and in Clogher Tenements|59: c, p in Augher, c in Cleanally, in Roughill, in Lisdoart, and in Ballygawley, m in Annagarvey, t in Culnaha, p in Durless White|60: c, p in Aughnacloy, c in Lisconduff, and in Mullyroddan|61: c in Kilnacart, in Brossley, in Syerla, and in Drummond, m in Benburb, p in Derrylappen|62: c in Moy, m in Tullydowey|63: m in Corcreevy demesne|64: c, m in Fivemiletown, m in Nurchossy Scotch|65: 0|66: 0|67: c in Dyan, f, p in Caledon|68: 0| End (Mary and I used magnifying glasses in perusing the Ordnance Survey Maps but are bound to have missed some mills, etc.)
Posted by Jim on May 6, 2017
By Brian Feeney (for Irish News)
Last Saturday’s formal statement of the EU’s negotiating position is of
enormous importance for Ireland north and south.
While Enda Kenny has been careful to avoid any public display of
triumphalism Irish government sources are cock-a-hoop at the brilliant
success of Ireland’s diplomatic offensive led by their man in Brussels,
Declan Kelleher, ambassador to the EU and one of Dublin’s most important
diplomats.
Donald Tusk, the European Council president stated in shorthand three
priorities for negotiation: people, money and Ireland. That is a
formidable reaffirmation and endorsement of Ireland’s nationalism but
also in practical terms places a satisfactory political and economic
outcome for the island at the centre of negotiations with the
floundering British.
You can gauge its importance because Ian Og and Jeffrey Donaldson were
both out of the traps instantly to say it wasn’t important and made no
difference to anything, proof if proof were needed of just how
significant Tusk’s statement and the unanimity of the EU 27 were. The
unionist reaction is also an indication of how closely wedded the DUP
MPs are to the idiotic catastrophe that Brexit is for the whole of the
UK but particularly for the north. Why are you not surprised?
The support for the Irish government’s position that the north will
rejoin the EU if we vote for Irish unity cannot be underestimated. It
changes the question. From now on there is an attractive option for
everyone here. It’s not, would you vote for a united Ireland, an entity
so far unspecified, but would you vote to join the EU? As Britain sinks
further into the mire in the 2020s and disaster overwhelms the north’s
agriculture industry when the Conservatives sacrifice farming for
sweetheart deals with the motor manufacturing industry there remains an
alternative.
What the Irish government has succeeded in doing is to separate the
north from the UK negotiating position. Only here do people have the
automatic option to vote to join the EU, an option the Scots would love
to have. The bottom line is it’s a crushing defeat for the Unionist with
a capital ‘U’ concept that all parts of the UK leave the EU together.
The north can return any time it wants. A referendum here is different
from anywhere else in the UK. Let that sink in.
Already the disastrous impact of what Lord Heseltine has called the most
stupid decision Britain has made since the 1930s has begun to take
effect. The newly resurrected Tony Blair, returning Lazarus-like to the
political fray, points out that the reason the pound is down 15 per cent
is because international finance decided immediately last summer that’s
how much poorer Britain will be as a result of the Brexit policies the
gormless Theresa May is pursuing. That 15 per cent is their cold
calculation, not whether international financiers agree or disagree with
Brexit. They don’t care.
Saturday’s EU statement of guidelines puts the tin lid on the gloating
of the Paisleys and Donaldsons that northern nationalists are trapped in
an isolated UK fenced off by a hard border. Are these guys nuts? Do they
really imagine destroying what passes for an ‘economy’ here is a good
idea or even something worth gambling away just to get one over on
nationalists?
The question is, how many unionists will agree with them that it’s a
good idea to sink into a diminishing, xenophobic, Empire 2.0 fantasy
Little England in squalid isolation or opt for a modern, outward-looking
European-wide society with human rights and equality for all guaranteed
by law?
As EU subsidies which underpin the peace process and keep agriculture
here viable vanish after 2020 and Conservative cuts destroy the NHS and
welfare system it may well occur to unionists across the board that when
they run out of grass to eat it might be a good idea to vote to join the
EU.
Of course by that time it may also have dawned on Theresa May and her
right wing crew that there is no pot of gold outside the EU and they
might decide to crawl back into the customs union and single market.
Who’d have thought the north would ever yearn to join a more prosperous
south?
Posted by Jim on
The Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement
said they have concerns about the detention without trial of republican
Tony Taylor in Maghaberry jail.
The spokesperson for the Republican Network for Unity (RNU) had been
released as part of the Good Friday Agreement, but his release was
revoked based on what was described as “an untested risk assessment” by
the British Crown forces. He was interned in March last year at the
request of British Direct Ruler Theresa Villiers.
After a series of delayed parole hearings, his case has again been put
back, this time until May 30th. A judgement is expected a week after
that.
The Dublin parliamentary committee on the 1998 peace deal met his family
recently to discuss his plight.
“The committee will be writing to the British Direct Ruler James
Brokesnhire to request a meeting as soon as possible, said committee
chair, Kathleen Funchion, Sinn Fein TD for Carlow-Kilkenny.
Ms Funchion added: “The Committee wishes to express its concern at the
nature of the arrest and imprisonment of Mr Taylor and his continued
detention without trial.”
Sinn Fein’s National Chairperson, Declan Kearney, has also called for
the immediate release of the Derry republican.
Speaking ahead of the cancelled hearing, Mr Kearney, who had been due to
attend, said: “Tony Taylor was arrested in March 2016 and jailed in
Maghaberry Prison on the word of the British Secretary of State.
“In the time since, no charges have been brought nor evidence produced
to justify Mr Taylor’s imprisonment.
“In these circumstances Sinn Fein has consistently called for Tony
Taylor’s release. I will attend today’s hearing to observe and to
restate our view that Mr Taylor’s imprisonment is unjust and brings the
justice system into disrepute. Tony Taylor should be released
immediately.”
Local People Before Profit Westminster election candidate Shaun Harkin
also called for the RNU man’s release.
He said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Republican activist Tony Taylor was locked-up in Maghaberry Prison 420
days ago on the say-so of the former British Secretary of State Theresa
Villiers…. He should be released immediately
“This is a straightforward matter of defending civil liberties. No
government should have the right to simply lock anyone it chooses up.
“You don’t have to agree with Tony’s politics in order to support his
immediate release. Internment without trial was wrong then and it is
wrong now. They might call it ‘administrative detention’ but it amounts
to the same thing. Everyone who opposes internment without trial and who
believes in defending civil liberty for all should call for justice to
be done and for Tony to be released today.”
Mr Taylor’s wife Lorraine urged people to “keep Tony in your prayers”.
She said the past 12 months had been difficult. “We need everybody to
come out behind us and show solidarity with Tony and show we are all
backing him.”
Posted by Jim on
In a significant political development, the youngest son of murdered
defence lawyer Pat Finucane is to fight the North Belfast Westminster
constituency for Sinn Fein.
John Finucane, now a human rights lawyer, launched his bid to become
North Belfast’s first nationalist MP at a selection convention at the
Lansdowne Hotel on the Antrim Road, just yards from where his father was
gunned down by British agents in front of his family.
The brutal killing, one of the most notorious of the conflict, was
carried out by a loyalist paramilitary death squad under the guidance of
British military intelligence, MI5.
Mr Finucane, a father-of-four, was announced as a candidate in the
British general election by Sinn Fein’s long-standing North Belfast
representative, Gerry Kelly, to a cheering crowd.
Speaking about his father’s death, the renowned campaigner said his
family continue to fight for justice. “I remain as resolute as ever that
some things are worth battling for,” he said.
“That is a conviction that I have taken from my father’s life and death,
and from the strength I have witnessed at first hand in my mother and my
family.
“I am the product of a mixed marriage. Of a Catholic father from west
Belfast, and a Protestant mother from east Belfast. I have relatives who
are Protestant and Catholic, and I have relatives who are unionist and
republican.”
He said he learned about equality from his family.
“I have been brought up and lived my life in an inclusive family
environment where difference and diversity is embraced and celebrated,
and I am proud of that,” he said.
“My upbringing has shown me that everyone deserves to be, and must be,
treated equally.
“It is this message of equality which I have tried to continue in my
professional life in the way I represent my clients as a practicing
solicitor.
“And it is this message of equality and inclusiveness that has made me
decide to put my name forward to stand for Sinn Fein here in North
Belfast.”
Mr Finucane’s family were present for a development which is the biggest
of the campaign so far. But the scale of the challenge — finding
thousands of Sinn Fein votes in a DUP stronghold — cannot be
underestimated.
Mr Finucane said he was confident he could win the seat for the party.
“I have heard some tell me that it would be impossible for me to win the
MP seat for North Belfast. Unfortunately for them I love a challenge,”
Mr Finucane said.
His speech was met with bitterness from the DUP, who described it as an
attempt by Sinn Fein to capitalise on the “victim status” of the the
Finucane family.
Supporting the nomination, Mr Kelly said the election was a contest
between “those who want the north to remain in Europe, who stand for
equality for rights and for Irish unity — and the DUP who support a
hard Brexit, support Tory cuts and who have set their face against
equality and rights.”
He said Sinn Fein was the only party which can take this seat from the
DUP.
“I am confident that in John Finucane we can return a nationalist MP for
the first time in the history of North Belfast and between now and June
8th we will be pulling out all the stops to make this possible.”
He said the momentum from the party’s strong result in the Stormont
Assembly election in March “is still there”.
“John’s decision to run has increased that momentum and it still needs
hard work.”
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein’s Pat Doherty, who has held the West Tyrone seat
for 16 years and a former Vice President of the party, has announced he
will not seek re-election. He is to stand down and will be replaced by
Barry McElduff.
Sinn Fein’s Paul Maskey, the MP for West Belfast, was also selected to
stand again in the constituency, where his biggest rival will be
socialist Gerry Carroll of People Before Profit.
Michelle Gildernew is to stand again in Fermanagh-South Tyrone, bringing
her into direct opposition with Ulster Unionist MP Tom Elliott for the
second time in two years. The constituency has been one of the
closest-fought in the north and is likely to be a top target for Sinn
Fein in the June 8 election.
Other candidates selected for the party in recent days include Chris
Hazzard in South Down; Elisha McCallion in Foyle; Mairtin O Muilleoir
in south Belfast, Mickey Brady in Newry and Armagh; John O’Dowd in Upper
Bann; Mairead O’Donnell in East Belfast and Oliver McMullan in East
Antrim.
Posted by Jim on May 5, 2017
The revolutionary spirit of freedom.
Portions of this article were first published anonymously in ‘Republican News’, December 16th, 1978. The smuggled out article recalls how the spirit of republican defiance grew within him, and is a semi-autobiographical account.
BOBBY SANDS was born in 1954 in Rathcoole, a predominantly loyalist district of north Belfast. His twenty-seventh birthday fell on the ninth day of his sixty-six-day hunger strike. His sisters Marcella, one year younger, and Bernadette, were born in April 1955 and November 1958, respectively. All three lived their early years at Abbots Cross in the Newtownabbey area of north Belfast. A second son, John, now nineteen, was born to their parents John and Rosaleen, now both aged 57, in June 1962.
The sectarian realities of ghetto life materialised early in Bobby’s life when at the age of ten his family were forced to move home owing to loyalist intimidation even as early as 1962. Bobby recalled his mother speaking of the troubled times which occurred during her childhood; ‘Although I never really under stood what internment was or who the ‘Specials’ were, I grew to regard them as symbols of evil ‘.
Of this time Bobby himself later wrote: ”I was only a working-class boy from a Nationalist ghetto, but it is repression that creates the revolutionary spirit of freedom. I shall not settle until I achieve liberation of my country, until Ireland becomes a sovereign, independent socialist republic. ”
When Bobby was sixteen years old he started work as an apprentice coach builder and joined the National Union of Vehicle Builders and the ATGWU. In an article printed in ‘An Phoblacht/Republican News’ on April 4th, 1981, Bobby recalled: ”Starting work, although frightening at first became alright, especially with the reward at the end of the week. Dances and clothes, girls and a few shillings to spend, opened up a whole new world to me.”
Bobby’s background, experiences and ambitions did not differ greatly from that of the average ghetto youth. Then came 1968 and the events which were to change his life. Bobby had served two years of his apprenticeship when he was intimidated out of his job. His sister Bernadette recalls: “Bobby went to work one morning and these fellows were standing there cleaning guns. One fellow said to him, ‘Do you see these here, well if you don’t go you’ll get this’ then Bobby also found a note in his lunch-box telling him to get out.”
In June 1972, the family were intimidated out of their home in Doonbeg Drive, Rathcoole and moved into the newly built Twinbrook estate on the fringe of nationalist West Belfast. Bernadette again recalled: We had suffered intimidation for about eighteen months before we were actually put out. We had always been used to having Protestant friends. Bobby had gone around with Catholics and Protestants, but it ended up when everything erupted, that the friends he went about with for years were the same ones who helped to put his family out of their home.
As well as being intimidated out of his job and his home being under threat Bobby also suffered personal attacks from the loyalists.
At eighteen Bobby joined the Republican Movement. Bernadette says: .. ‘he was just at the age when he was beginning to become aware of things happening around him. He more or less just said right, this is where I’m going to take up. A couple of his cousins had been arrested and interned. Booby felt that he should get involved and start doing something. ‘
Bobby himself wrote. “My life now centered around sleepless nights and stand-bys dodging the Brits and calming nerves to go out on operations. But the people stood by us. The people not only opened the doors of their homes to lend us a hand but they opened their hearts to us. I learned that without the people we could not survive and I knew that I owed them everything.
In October 1972, he was arrested. Four handguns were found in a house he was staying in and he was charged with possession. He spent the next three years in the cages of Long Kesh where he had political prisoner status. During this time Bobby read widely and taught himself Irish which he was later to teach the other blanket men in the H-Blocks.
Released in 1976 Bobby returned to his family in Twinbrook. He reported back to his local unit and straight back into the continuing struggle: ‘Quite a lot of things had changed some parts of the ghettos had completely disappeared and others were in the process of being removed. The war was still forging ahead although tactics and strategy had changed. The British government was now seeking to ‘Ulsterise’ the war which included the attempted criminalisation of the IRA and attempted normalisation of the war situation.’
Bobby set himself to work tackling the social issues which affected the Twinbrook area. Here he became a community activist. According to Bernadette, ‘When he got out of jail that first time our estate had no Green Cross, no Sinn Fein, nor anything like that. He was involved in the Tenants’ Association… He got the black taxis to run to Twinbrook because the bus service at that time was inadequate. It got to the stage where people were coming to the door looking for Bobby to put up ramps on the roads in case cars were going too fast and would knock the children down.’
Within six months Bobby was arrested again. There had been a bomb attack on the Balmoral Furniture Company at Dunmurry, followed by a gun-battle in which two men were wounded. Bobby was in a car near the scene with three other young men. The RUC captured them and found a revolver in the car.
The six men were taken to Castlereagh and were subjected to brutal interrogations for six days. Bobby refused to answer any questions during his interrogation, except his name, age and address.
In a ninety-six verse poem written in 1980, entitled ‘The Crime of Castlereagh’, Bobby tells of his experiences in Castlereagh and his fears and thoughts at the time.
They came and came their job the same
In relays N’er they stopped.
‘Just sign the line!’ They shrieked each time
And beat me ’till I dropped.
They tortured me quite viciously
They threw me through the air.
It got so bad it seemed I had
Been beat beyond repair.
The days expired and no one tired,
Except of course the prey,
And knew they well that time would tell
Each dirty trick they laid on thick
For no one heard or saw,
Who dares to say in Castlereagh
The ‘police’ would break the law!
He was held on remand for eleven months until his trial in September 1977. As at his previous trial he refused to recognise the court.
The judge admitted there was no evidence to link Bobby, or the other three young men with him, to the bombing. So the four of them were sentenced to fourteen years each for possession of the one revolver.
Bobby spent the first twenty-two days of his sentence in solitary confinement, ‘on the boards’ in Crumlin Road jail. For fifteen of those days he was completely naked. He was moved to the H-Blocks and joined the blanket protest. He began to write for Republican News and then after February 1979 for the newly-merged An Phobhacht/Republican News under the pen-name, ‘Marcella’, his sister’s name. His articles and letters, in minute handwriting, like all communications from the H-Blocks, were smuggled out on tiny pieces of toilet paper.
He wrote: ‘The days were long and lonely. The sudden and total deprivation of such basic human necessities as exercise and fresh air, association with other people, my own clothes and things like newspapers, radio, cigarettes books and a host of other things, made my life very hard.’
Bobby became PRO for the blanket men and was in constant confrontation with the prison authorities which resulted in several spells of solitary confinement. In the H-Blocks, beatings, long periods in the punishment cells, starvation diets and torture were commonplace as the prison authorities, with the full knowledge and consent of the British administration, imposed a harsh and brutal regime on the prisoners in their attempts to break the prisoners’ resistance to criminalisation.
An aerial view of the H-Blocks where political status was to be denied.
An aerial view of the H-Blocks where political status was to be denied.
The H-Blocks became the battlefield in which the republican spirit of resistance met head-on all the inhumanities that the British could perpetrate. The republican spirit prevailed and in April 1978 in protest against systematic ill-treatment when they went to the toilets or got showered, the H-Block prisoners refused to wash or slop-out. They were joined in this no-wash protest by the women in Armagh jail in February 1980 when they were subjected to similar harassment.
On October 27th, 1980, following the breakdown of talks between British direct ruler in the North, Humphrey Atkins, and Cardinal O Fiaich, the Irish Catholic primate, seven prisoners in the H-Blocks began a hunger strike. Bobby volunteered for the fast but instead he succeeded, as O/C, Brendan Hughes, who went on hunger-strike.
During the hunger-strike he was given political recognition by the prison authorities. The day after a senior British official visited the hunger-strikers, Bobby was brought half a mile in a prison van from H3 to the prison hospital to visit them. Subsequently he was allowed several meetings with Brendan Hughes. He was not involved in the decision to end the hunger-strike which was taken by the seven men alone. But later that night he was taken to meet them and was allowed to visit republican prison leaders in H-Blocks 4, 5 and 6.
On December 19th, 1980, Bobby issued a statement that the prisoners would not wear prison-issue clothing nor do prison work. He then began negotiations with the prison governor, Stanley Hilditch, for a step-by-step de-escalation of the protest.
But the prisoners’ efforts were rebuffed by the authorities: ‘We discovered that our good will and flexibility were in vain,’ wrote Bobby. It was made abundantly clear during one of my co-operation’ meetings with prison officials that strict conformity was required. which in essence meant acceptance of criminal status.
In the H-Blocks the British saw the opportunity to defeat the IRA by criminalising Irish freedom fighters but the blanketmen, perhaps more than those on the outside, appreciated before anyone else the grave repercussions, and so they fought.
Bobby volunteered to lead the new hunger strike. He saw it as a microcosm of the way the Brits were treating Ireland historically and presently, Bobby realised that someone would have to die to win political status.
He insisted on starting two weeks in front of the others so that perhaps his death could secure the five demands and save their lives. For the first seventeen days of the hunger strike Bobby kept a secret diary in which he wrote his thoughts and views, mostly in English but occasionally breaking into Gaelic. He had no fear of death and saw the hunger-strike as something much larger than the five demands and as having major repercussions for British rule in Ireland. The diary was written on toilet paper in biro pen and had to be hidden, mostly carried inside Bobby’s own body. During those first seventeen days Bobby lost a total of sixteen pounds weight and on Monday, March 23rd, he was moved to the prison hospital.
On March 30th, he was nominated as candidate for the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election caused by the sudden death of Frank Maguire, an independent MP who supported the prisoners’ cause.
In spite of his election to the British parliament, Thatcher was to let him die.
In spite of his election to the British parliament, Thatcher was to let him die.
The next morning, day thirty-one, of his hunger-strike, he was visited by Owen Carron who acted as his election agent. Owen told of that first visit ‘Instead of meeting that young man of the poster with long hair and a fresh face, even at that time when Bobby wasn’t too bad he was radically changed. He was very thin and bony and his hair was cut short.’
Bobby had no illusions with regard to his election victory. His reaction was not one of over-optimism. After the result was announced Owen visited Bobby. “He had already heard the result on the radio. He was in good form alright but he always used to keep saying, ‘In my position you can’t afford to be optimistic.’ In other words, he didn’t take it that because he’d won an election that his life would be saved. He thought that the Brits would need their pound of flesh. I think he was always working on the premise that he would have to die.”
At 1.17 a.m. on Tuesday, May 5th, having completed sixty-five days on hunger-strike, Bobby Sands MP, died in the H-Block prison hospital at Long Kesh. Bobby was a truly unique person whose loss is great and immeasurable. He never gave himself a moment to spare. He lived his life energetically, dedicated to his people and to the republican cause, eventually offering up his life in a conscious effort to further that cause and the cause of those with whom he had shared almost eight years of his adult life. In his own words: “of course can be murdered but I remain what I am, a political POW and no-one, not even the British, can change that.”