Bobby Sands

Ocras

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There are two monuments in Cornagrade, Enniskillen, commemorating hunger: An Staılc Ocraıs of 1981 and An tOcras Mór of 1845-1849.

Above and immediately below: a memorial stone to Bobby Sands in Erne Drive. The inscription on the stone reads, “‘Is naofa ıad sıud sa fhulaıngíonn ocras ar son na córa.’ [= Holy are those who suffer hunger for the sake of justice/”Blessed are those who hunger for justice”] I ndíl [ndıl] chuımnhe ar Óglach Bobby Sands, feısıre [= M.P.] Fhearmanach-Thír Eoghaın Theas, a d’éag 5 Bealtaıne 1981 ın aoıs 27 ı ndıaıdh 66 lá ar staıle [staılc] ocraıs ar son stádas polaıtıúıl a chomhchımí agus saoırse na hÉıreann. I measc laochra na nGael go raıbh a anam uasal. ‘Is í gáıre ár bpáıstí an díoltas a bheas agaınn’”

For an alternative translation of Sands’s quote “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children”, see The Spirit Of Freedom in the Peter Moloney Collection.

Below: the “Pauper’s Graveyard” by Éamonn O’Doherty – a table with five empty plates stands between the gable walls of a stone cottage. The plaque reads, “The Famine Memorial: this memorial stands on the site of the main pauper’s graveyard of Enniskillen workhouse during the Great Famine and beyond (1846-1948). “We beg to to direct the attention of the guardians to the shameless, indecent and dangerous piling of the dead paupers in the new ground …” – Letter from Maguiresbridge Relief Committee March 3, 1847. “Allow the fertile crop of change to grow, accept what is past, embrace what is to come” – Martina Feely, Garrison, aged 16, April 1996. Grateful thanks to the Kilmacormick History Group and project benefactors: the National Famine Commemoration Committee, the Arts Council Of Northern Ireland National Lottery Fund and the Central Community Relations Unit. Fermanagh District Council, 28 August, 1996.”

Erne Drive/Derrygore Terrace, Cornagrade, Enniskillen

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A Working-Class Boy From A Ghetto

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“I was only a working-class boy from a [nationalist] ghetto, but it is repression that creates the revolutionary spirit of freedom.” This is a widely-quoted line from Bobby Sands, from an article in Republican News, 16 December, 1978 (page 7 pdf).

The mosaic has been in place since 2012; the quote was perhaps added for the launch of the Bobby Sands statue.

Twinbrook Road, Dunmurry

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Óglach Bobby Sands

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“Óglach Bobby Sands 9th March 1954 – 5th May 1981”. Sands was the first of the ten IRA and INLA prisoners to die in the second hunger strike. For the 44th anniversary of his death, a statue was unveiled in Twinbrook, near the Sands family home and next to the memorial garden in Gardenmore Road (Peter Moloney Collection).

The statue was created by Packy Adams (Belfast Media | Irish News) and appears to be based on the photographs by Gérard Harlay – discovered in 2019 – of Sands carrying a United Irishmen flag in a march that took place a few months before his (final) arrest in 1976 (Bobby Sands Trust). The hair is also reminiscent of Wolfe Tone. The new statue (which does not have planning permission) has a built-in flag-pole, to which an Irish Tricolour was added for the launch on May 4th.

There is also a free-standing information board about Sands at the other end of Jasmine Corner, part of the Colin Heritage Trail.

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Ireland Supports Palestinian Resistance

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A rally at Free Derry Corner took place on Tuesday evening to express solidarity with the Palestinians (Derry Now). The wall has been decorated with support for Palestinians. On the left a boy in a tricoloured t-shirt waves a Palestinian flag although at his feet are the words of Bobby Sands: “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children”. On the right, a lark in barbed wire (symbol of political prisoners) sports the colours of Palestine, above “RSYM” [Republican Socialist Youth Movement (Fb)]. The text in the centre draws an analogy between Palestine and Ukraine: “Ukraine vs Russia = Self-defense. Palestine vs. Israel = Terrorism??”

More solidarity rallies are planned in towns around Ireland throughout the week (IPSC) including a white-line picket in Derry on Saturday.

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The Rarer Action Is In Virtue

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“Our revenge will be the laughter of our children” – The words of Bobby Sands are illustrated on an electrical box on the Whiterock Road, Belfast, with silhouettes of children at play in nature.

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A Perennial War

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Here is the scene at Kells Walk/Rossville St in the Bogside.

From left to right:

O’Hara-Devine mural

No Amnesty For British State Forces: “Democide is the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide and mass murder. Democide is not necessarily the elimination of entire cultural groups but rather groups within the country that the government feels needs to be eradicated for political reasons and due to claimed future threats. – No amnesty for British state forces”

End British Political Policing (Saoradh (web))

Bobby Sands/IRPWA: “I’ll wear no convict’s uniform/Nor meekly serve my time/That Britain might brand Ireland’s fight/800 years of crime” [Francie Brolly song] (IRPWA (web))

Free All Political Prisoners! (IRPWA)

1981: 1981: “I am a political prisoner. I am a political prisoner because I am a casualty of a perennial war that is being fought between the oppressed Irish people and an alien, oppressive, unwanted regime that refuses to withdraw from our land.” [Bobby Sands’s diary, day 1] (IRPWA)

Unity Referendum Now!: “British occupation has been a disaster for the people of Ireland. A united Ireland is the way forward for all the people of Ireland.” (IRSP.ie)

40th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike: described previously in For A Socialist Republic (IRSM/IRSP)

“Peace” mural (with cross) from the Bogside Artists

In the shot above, our photographer has intervened and stood up the last panel of the “1981” board.

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Republican Prisoners Still Exist!

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“Foremost in my tortured mind is the thought that there can never be peace in Ireland until the foreign, oppressive British presence is removed, leaving all the Irish people as a unit to control their own affairs and determine their own destinies as a sovereign people, free in mind and body, separate and distinct physically, culturally and economically.” The quote is from day one of Bobby Sands’s hunger strike diary (March 1st, 1981) and the photograph is a 2007 image of a cell in the H-4 (Irish Times).

“Maghaberry – Portlaoise – Hydebank. Republican prisoners still exist!” IRPWA (web) board on Divis St, Belfast, replacing the Sands & Hughes mural – see Caırde Agus Comrádaıthe.

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On The Streets Of Derry

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“This mural is dedicated to all those who tragically died on the streets of Derry during the hunger strike era. Suaımhneas Dé da nanamacha. 3rd October 2006.” The mural referred to is in fact the ‘crumbling cell’ mural (see M03350); the ‘Spirit Of Freedom’ mural was first painted in 2011 for the 30th anniversary (see X00999) – the 30th anniversary plaque remains, on the right of the mural. For the 40th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike “40” has replaced the “30” in the bottom border – see the final image.

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X10899 X10902 X10903 X10901 X10900 our revenge will be the laughter of our children baınfear ár ndíoltas amach leıs an ghaıre dár bpáıstí

The Joy Of Our Hearts

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The Newington tribute to Bobby Sands and the other deceased hunger strikers of the 1970s and 80s (see previously: Mol An Óıge Agus Tıocfaıdh Sí) has been augmented with four plaques to republicans from the area who died in the Troubles: (l-r) Martin McDonagh, Rosemary Bleakley, Colm Mulgrew, and Sean ‘Maxi’ McIvenna.

Unbeknowst to her parents (Lost Lives), Bleakley had joined Cumann Na mBan at 18 and was four days short of her nineteenth birthday when she and McDonagh were killed in a premature bomb explosion in the North Street arcade (Victor Patterson image of the blast), along with civilians Ian Gallagher and Mary Dornan (Sutton); 20 others were injured (Fortnight). Bleakley was not buried in the republican plot (in Milltown) but coincidentally in the plot adjacent to Dornan (BBC).

Bleakley was portrayed in the old New Lodge Volunteers mural.

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Beechmount Remembers

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A new board has been mounted in AMCOMRI Street for the fortieth anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike, with photographs from the area in the background, including the Revolution mural at the bottom of Beechmount Avenue in 1996-1997.

“Everyone, Republican or otherwise, has their own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something.”

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