Oscar winning English actor Colin Firth has won the admiration of a surprising new constituency -Irish Republicans.
The Academy Award winning actor has co-edited a remarkable new book that highlights the most impassioned speeches about the fight for what is right in the British and Irish traditions and brings them to life for a new generation of readers.
Firth has selected extracts from iconic Republican figurehead Bobby Sands’s hunger strike diary in a new book titled 'The People Speak,' which will reportedly become part of a larger multimedia project that will include a stage show bringing to life the voices of campaigners, dissidents and visionaries.
Now An Phoblact, the Irish Republican newspaper, has written an unexpectedly approving review of Firth's editorial work.
According to the paper, the idea for the book originated in America, where performers such as Matt Damon and Bob Dylan supported the scheme. Eventually compiled by Firth alongside author and editor Anthony Arnove and historian David Horspool, the new collection of speeches, songs and letters include quotes from women's rights luminaries like Emmeline Pankhurst and literary heroes like Oscar Wilde.
Veteran republican Gerry O’Hare (a former political prisoner and ex-editor of An Phoblacht) reviewed 'The People Speak – Voices That Changed Britain' for the Bobby Sands Trust and wrote: Considering that most of us grew up in or around some form of Thatcherism, with all its works and pomps, the title of this book caught my attention. Whose ‘Voices’, I wondered? It wasn’t what I expected.'
In his introduction, Firth writes: 'I hope that these voices serve as a reminder that much of what we feel entitled to today, much of what we accept as civilised or decent, began as treason. Was fought for by men and women who weren’t endowed with any political power, who were hanged for it, transported, tortured or imprisoned until eventually their ideas were adapted to, adopted and handed down to us as basic rights.These freedoms are now in our care. And unless we act on them and continue to fight for them, they will be lost more easily than they were won.'
O'Hare writes that he was surprised by what he read. Ireland, after all, is not the only national with a radical tradition.
Spanning over almost a thousand years and 150 individual voices, these speeches are, Firth claims, 'the most powerful words in British history.'
O'Hare writes that he went straight to see what Bobby Sands had said to impress Firth enough to be included in the new book.
The excerpt selected turned out to be from his prison diary, dated March 1.
Sands states that he is a political prisoner and he is aware he is breaking his mothers heart. '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.'
He documents his agonising hunger strike, his treatment at the hands of 'the slobbers' – prison wardens - and he ends his short narrative by saying that, on receiving a letter from his mother, his mind is at peace for his struggle.
'Every time I feel down, I think of Armagh (jail) and James Connolly. They can never take those thoughts away from me.'
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.DanOLoingsigh | Nov 15, 2012, 04:47 AM EST
a Murial...surely not???
DanOLoingsigh | Nov 15, 2012, 04:46 AM EST
...a MURIAL, surely not?
DanOLoingsigh | Nov 14, 2012, 02:09 PM EST
Seanmor...one of the official languages, surely?
Strongbow | Nov 13, 2012, 11:10 PM EST
Hopefully Mr. Firth will extol the virtues of Mumia Jamal while he is at it.
seanomelb | Nov 13, 2012, 06:00 PM EST
Woundedknee your that opened the door stating you did your bit. BTW My father was at Patsi O'Hara's funeral not Joe's I had a memory lapse.
Seanmor | Nov 13, 2012, 04:30 PM EST
On 17th March, 1981, d'úsáid Sands Gaeilge ina dhialann. I hope that won't decrease the value of the M.P.'s diary in the eyes of those who oppose the official language of the Irish state.
RedBranch | Nov 13, 2012, 03:21 PM EST
There's a Rue Bobby Sands in Paris as well, but Iran of the Mad Mullahs weren't trying to praise Sands, so much as tick off the English. If the US ever had an embassy in Havanna Castro would change the name of the street to "Oswald Drive' or some such. I find it low grade, even imperialist to go after your target by shaking through the history of another country. The Wind that Shakes the Barley director Ken Loach has always had a major left wing anti English establishment chip. To press gang and fictionalise further the events of 1919-22 period for his own personal vendetta is to my mind imperailist, for want of a better word. P.S. Good to see you back with form George
DanOLoingsigh | Nov 13, 2012, 02:54 PM EST
ancavker… northern nationalists and southern unionists found themselves in states they didn’t want to be in …but a Treaty was signed …that’s the bit you always seem to overlook.
WoundedKnee | Nov 13, 2012, 01:15 PM EST
seanomel:"my father was in the funeral cortège for Joe representing republicans in Australia. He was looked after by Sinn Fein and had a car and driver at his disposal." Big Deal.
WoundedKnee | Nov 13, 2012, 01:13 PM EST
maireadinmelb "Did you know the British embassy in Tehran Iran is on Bobby Sands Road?" Yes I did. But so what?
WoundedKnee | Nov 13, 2012, 01:11 PM EST
seamus60, maireadinmelb--Don't misunderstand me. I admired and respected the Hunger Strikers. I went over to Ireland to try to support them. I was there for for a large part of that terrible summer of 1981, watching them die one by one, and taking part in countless marches, meetings, pickets, demonstrations--and funerals. I have a special spot for Francis Hughes and Joseph McDonnell. I worked in Joe McDonnell's election campaign in Cavan County--he was very unlucky not to be elected. Maybe it's because I admire them that I think that history had shown that their sacrifice was foolish and unnecessary. They had many productive years left ahead of them, now lost forever. They left families bereaved and orphaned. And for what?
seamus60 | Nov 13, 2012, 09:22 AM EST
The prisoners did eventually get all that Brendan Duddy had passed on to Mc Guinness from the British. Proven by the attendance of Duddy at the Gasyard in Derry where he confirmed the same. Possably why Mc Guinness or Adams and others involved with the Hungerstrike declined their invitation to attend. They have never called Duddy a liar either as people expected them to do in view of the facts that totally contridict theirs. Just watched a short video of Adams giving a speech in the USA where he still beats it out that the Vols on the first Hunger strike were dogged by the Brits who reneged on a promise. Total rubbish there was NO OFFER to the men when the Dark (RIP) called it off. But Adams account buys into his and others treachury committed during the second strike.
maireadinmelb | Nov 13, 2012, 03:55 AM EST
Further in 1981 I was young, but i remember attending events in MElbourne Australia in support of Irish independence. Even in Australia my grandfather would make sure we remembered the names of the hungerstrikers and the signatories of the PRoclamation like other children remember prime ministers and presidents!
maireadinmelb | Nov 13, 2012, 03:52 AM EST
Woundedknee 1. Hunger strike was called off by the prisoners on 3 October 1981 at 3.15pm. Mickey Divine (the tenth hunger striker) had 2 children also. Hungerstrikers took the irish struggle to the world. The significance of their actions and sacrifice can be seen in the effect it had on teh world. DId you know the British embassy in Tehran Iran is on Bobby Sands Road? The difficulty know is the attempt by modern so-called Republicans to change teh boundaries failing to acknowledge that there are still political prisoners being mistreated in jails of foreigners!
seanomelb | Nov 12, 2012, 05:23 PM EST
Actually WoundedKnee my father was in the funeral cortège for Joe representing republicans in Australia. He was looked after by Sinn Fein and had a car and driver at his disposal. You are wrong about no concessions as the concessions were "gradually" installed so that thatcher did not look like she caved in to IRA demands.It took about three months to give freedom of movement and other concessions demanded by those incarcerated. Even the Orange inmates thanked the IRA for they received the same concessions.WoundedKnee you talk from the hip do some homework in future.
seamus60 | Nov 12, 2012, 03:30 PM EST
Woundedknee. With respect you can hardly call any of the brave Hungerstrikers fools. Had they known what the leadership on the outside where at behind their backs and went along with it, the word fools would be mild in the extreme.
ancavker | Nov 12, 2012, 01:31 PM EST
Dan: And the Unionists forced half a million Catholic/Nationalists into a state they wanted no part of. And that state included large areas that had (at the time), a Catholic/Nationalist majority. Tyrone, Fermanagh, south Armagh, west Derry. You always seem to overlook that part of the story.
Murph46 | Nov 12, 2012, 01:22 PM EST
Jaysus are you thick Wounded-After the death's at Kent State,it took three years to end the Viet Nam war,rarely is there one seminal event that causes a change,but Sand's death did cause Thatcher to rethink a lot of things-she said so herself!Go take your insignificant blather elsewhere!You make little sense!
WoundedKnee | Nov 12, 2012, 12:53 PM EST
thetint --I'm familiar with that quote. But here's the point. The hunger strike ended in September 1981 with ten men dead and no concessions from the British. Yet over the subsequent year or two the prisoners achieved pretty much all of their demands. Quietly, without confrontation. So what was served by the death of Sands, Hughes etc? Sands was only a few years older than me, he'd still be a relatively young man if he had survived. Who knows what he could have contributed? He was an intelligent man, though lacking in formal schooling. And what happened subsequently to his wife and child? I don't know, but I'll bet loudmouths like murph and seanomel here never gave a dime to help bring up Sands' child. Joe McDonnell had a really beautiful and strong wife. Two children also, if I remember correctly. I think Joe's sacrifice was extraordinary, because he led the second wave of hunger strikers, who could see that the deaths of the first wave had yielded nothing. He looked death in the face, even tho he had so much to live for. Joe was a brave man, far braver than me. But he was a fool, because he left his children orphaned and his loving wife widowed just to put Gerry Adams and McGuinness in big jobs. There's nothing original about what I'm saying. Other H Block survivors such as Brendan Hughes came to believe the same thing.
WoundedKnee | Nov 12, 2012, 12:39 PM EST
Murph, if you were old enough to go to Vietnam you were old enough to go to Ireland for the H Block struggle that you now claim to be so concerned about. I was too young for the Vietnam War, but I am proud of my father, who opposed the crazy War and took steps to make sure he didn't get involved in killing people he had no quarrel with.
Murph46 | Nov 12, 2012, 12:06 PM EST
WoundedKnee-I went in the second largest draft of the Viet Nam war-b4 you call me a fat ass,I'm betting you have never served your country so.Guys like you are a dime a dozen,all full of blather and no substance.Pog Ma Thoin!
thetint | Nov 12, 2012, 11:03 AM EST
Regarding the comment of WoundedKnee that the cause was lost. When Chinese revolutionary Zhou Enlai was asked the significance of the French Revolution of 1789 – he replied ‘It is too soon to say.’
IrelandNorth | Nov 12, 2012, 06:36 AM EST
If "Bobby Sands was part of a failed attempt to coerce northern unionists into a socialist [sic] entity...", might the omitted text in this statement have gone on to mention the inconvenient truth that this may have been not historically unrelated to Eddie Carson's earlier failed attempt to coerce Irish Catholic/nationalist/republicans to stay in a democratically-challenged imperialist entity? If the 26 county proto-republic statelet was a socialist (sic) entity, the world is surely safe for capitalism - though the attempt to exploit fears of republican Irish-America is duly noted! PS "... voting franchise across the UK was extended to all males in 1918 ..." as long as they were property owning rate payers, which in the case of the 6 county NI neo-provincial statlet subsequently, usually meant Protestants only. Which remained the case up until the 1960s. NB A new book by Guardian journalist Ian Cobain (2012) - "Cruel Britannia: A Secret History of Torture", was reviewed in The Irish Times at the weekend, two chapters of which deal with such in NI.
WoundedKnee | Nov 12, 2012, 01:56 AM EST
Murph, seanomel and other dopes: I went over to Ireland in May 1981 to try to do my bit for the H Block cause and stayed there till Joe McDonnell's death and the Battle of the British Embassy showed that the cause was lost. What did YOU do that year? And if you say you were too young, are you going to claim that you would have done as I did? Like hell you would--you're keyboard militants and virtual activists. You couldn't get off your fat asses.
mayoman1 | Nov 12, 2012, 01:33 AM EST
Lest we forget
seanomelb | Nov 12, 2012, 01:32 AM EST
Bobby Sands MP hero
DanOLoingsigh | Nov 11, 2012, 08:10 PM EST
curtis...exactly what the eff are you on about?
aloistmartin | Nov 11, 2012, 07:45 PM EST
curtisjohnson@ What in Gods Name, would the Unionist`s ever have to do, with the INLA, The CPI, Sinn Fein, or Bobby Sands ?
aloistmartin | Nov 11, 2012, 07:42 PM EST
With the company Bobby Sands kept; He need not Turn in his Grave, over this Capitalist Globalizationist Zionist Exploitationist Biography Fiasco ~
curtisjohnson | Nov 11, 2012, 07:31 PM EST
"Northern unionists" are already part of a proto-bolshevik socialist/plutocratic hybrid entity, the british terror state.
DanOLoingsigh | Nov 11, 2012, 07:18 PM EST
Bobby Sands was part of a failed attempt to coerce northern unionists into a socialist entity…
DanOLoingsigh | Nov 11, 2012, 07:08 PM EST
merefalow - You need to check your facts...voting franchise across the UK was extended to all males in 1918...
seanomelb | Nov 11, 2012, 05:38 PM EST
If all the married heroes in the world had "stayed at home" the word would be in a sad state. Your argument is flawed and silly wounded knee.
Murph46 | Nov 11, 2012, 04:53 PM EST
I guess wounded knee ,you will never understand "Give me Liberty ,or give me Death" Bobby Sands PM understood that implicitly.Something you probably never will!
merefalow | Nov 11, 2012, 03:55 PM EST
i know there is almost complete ignorance of irelands history in the majority of the british people,of course that is not true of the governing classes,merely a contemptuous indifference and determination to maintain the status quo of invasion and conquest irispective of right or justice.the american negro achieved one man one vote before the irish in their own country,read it out,it just might educate people a little about injustice.
WoundedKnee | Nov 11, 2012, 02:34 PM EST
My first visit to Ireland was as a teenager in that sad year of 1981. Having reflected on what happened that year and subsequently, I believe Sands, Hughes and the others threw away their lives for nothing. Hughes was a single man, and had a right to so as he wished, but I especially question Sands and Joseph McDonell, both of whem were married men with young children (these are the two married hunger strikers I know about, there may have been more). It was quite wrong for them to throw away their lives and leave their children fatherless.
Murph46 | Nov 11, 2012, 12:14 PM EST
Heard his brother Sean share many of the same sentiments when he visited America and spoke at a local Hibernians Club.While some called him a terrorist,I wrote to our paper that 200 years earlier in our colonies,he would be a Patriot! His cause was the same ,to remove a latter day king George from his colonies!
Ms.Gail | Nov 11, 2012, 11:43 AM EST
I look forward to reading this book.
mpetkac1 | Nov 11, 2012, 11:42 AM EST
Very interesting...I did my graduate thesis on Bobby Sands and used many excerpts from his diary for my paper. While a prisoner in Long Kesh, Sands, as well as many of his fellow inmates, were brutalized beyond belief by the prison guards (screws); his diary was, at times, difficult to read. Although subject to horrendous, inhumane living conditions and barbaric treatment by the screws, Sands' spirit was never broken. He was an inspiration to the other prisoners and died believing that the ultimate sacrifice-his life-would bring about change to the people of Northern Ireland. He was the leader, and the face, of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike.
eileenkny | Nov 11, 2012, 10:01 AM EST
Bravo, Colin Firth!