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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Bobby Sands death was moment when all changed in Northern Ireland -- Turning point for ‘The Troubles’ reached 31 years ago this week

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Bobby Sands death was moment when all changed in Northern Ireland -- Turning point for ‘The Troubles’ reached 31 years ago this week

Posted on Sunday, May 06, 2012 at 08:57 AM

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It was 31 years ago yesterday that Bobby Sands died on hunger strike in Northern Ireland.

I was living in San Francisco at the time, 6,000 miles from Ireland, but the anger was palpable among the Irish American community there.

We gathered outside the British consulate as a group walked behind a mock coffin chanting “Bobby Sands MP” in recognition that he had been an elected member of the British parliament.

In retrospect letting Bobby Sands die was one of the greatest mistakes the British made in the history of Northern Ireland.

His election before he died to the House of Commons showed the Sinn Fein leadership, still very much the junior partner to the IRA in 1981, that politics could actually work and bring tens of thousands out onto the streets and into polling booths.

Sinn Fein learned well and the political evolution began on that May night that the death of Sands was announced.

I for one, considered that the Sands death was a turning point in my beliefs.

Up to that point I had little time for the IRA, believing that the frequent atrocities and bombings were totally counterproductive in terms of building worldwide support for a united Ireland. John Hume’s “agreed Ireland” seemed a better concept.

I would not have been caught dead at an IRA man’s mock coffin demonstration outside a British consulate before Bobby Sands.

I saw many others like me on that night, people who had a deep ambivalence about the situation in Northern Ireland but who were utterly inflamed and upset at what Margaret Thatcher had just allowed to happen.

From Sands' death on, Sinn Fein began to take more and more prominence in the republican debate.

It is a long haul but there is a direct line from there to the peace process and the ultimate entry of Sinn Fein into shared power in Northern Ireland, an idea that would have been inconceivable that May evening 31 years ago.

But it happened, and the stage was set with the death of Bobby Sands.

As Yeats remarked, “all changed, changed utterly” from that point on.

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abhainn | May 20, 2012, 06:51 PM EDT

Niall O'Dowd, you don't seem to realise how ugly you reveal yourself to be when you write that the "frequent atrocities and bombings were totally counterproductive". Those atrocities were murders of innocent passers by, civilians caught up in the IRA's ugly campaign of indiscriminate murder and terrorism. And you weigh that moral evil and conclude it was merely "counterproductive"? Terrorists thrive when the community contains people like you. Bobby Sands was a bloody fool whose selfish actions inflamed violence in Ireland. You also reveal how you allowed yourself to be manipulated by Bobby Sands: you were "inflamed" by what you describe as "what Margaret Thatcher allowed to happen" but it was Sands's decision to starve himself to death. What did you want Thatcher to do: force feed him? Sands made his choice and it created a horrifying crisis in Irish society. To hell with him. Irish patriots reject his insane actions.

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Realist | May 20, 2012, 01:15 PM EDT

seamus60: Lol...still scanning the internet trying to scrape together any little scrap of hearsay, gossip, or derogatory opinion on Robert Bradford? For a man who claims to condemn murder, you certainly seem bent on justifying this one. As for the rest of your post - conspiracy theory punctuated with speculation.

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seamus60 | May 20, 2012, 09:30 AM EDT

Realist. Bradford neither advocated nor practiced the denial of anyone's human rights????? As long as you don`t want to remember events like that in Horn Drive in 1970. Where the few catholic families living there were burned from their homes in the middle of the night by a hostile crowd of loyalists amongst them the REV himself, whilst even the british army looked on. You are in total denial as to what the system was, rotten to the core. The rotten system where we may never know just how far the REV was prepared to go to retain the statusquo. You atempt to make milage from stalker etc to defend the rotten system. The same system that set up such inquiries where those being investigated had the right to decline participation, where the investigaters had to move mountains to get anywhere near rooms full of intel which then mysteriously caught fire destroying all. Stevens was to follow and for his opinion on the restraints of his own remit he was character asassinated. Your own REV had obviously become a threat to god only knows who and needed taken out of the picture. The Castlereagh breakin being the final part of the clean up operation. More so to cover up republicans in simular dirty deeds.

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Realist | May 20, 2012, 05:47 AM EDT

maireadinmelb: To return to my original point....you stated that you consider those who mistreat their POWs as terrorists. In response, I asked if you consider the Provisional IRA, who took no prisoners and "executed" their victims, to be terrorists. Now for the third time of asking, will you please answer?

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Realist | May 20, 2012, 05:41 AM EDT

seanomelb: My friend, you only have to go as far as Wikipedia....the Stalker/Sampson inquiry team also stated in June 1990 that "the Greater Manchester officers wish to stress that the Stalker/Sampson Enquiry found no evidence of a 'Shoot to Kill policy'". Therefore, I ask again, would you please quote one internationally recognized legal or governmental source that states, with evidence, that the United Kingdom Government operated a so-called "shoot-to-kill" policy in Northern Ireland?

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Realist | May 20, 2012, 04:25 AM EDT

maireadinmelb: Robert Bradford was never a member of any government and neither advocated nor practiced the denial of anyone's human rights. Your comments read like a justification for murder. "you sew what you reap"? Once more, this callous and worryingly naive comment seems to support the murder of one democratically elected MP by the comrades of another. Therefore I ask again, do you or do you not condemn the murder of Robert Bradford MP?

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acooney | May 20, 2012, 12:15 AM EDT

I agree with maireadinmelb, bradford was part of a disgusting injust government and he got what was coming to him. It's called karma. The only people who considered the IRA terrorists were the Brits, the IRA got help in the form of financing and guns from the USA, so they hardly thought of them as terrorists and in the Republic of Ireland they were considered Freedom Fighters as they should be. I think Realist has the facts all wrong.

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seanomelb | May 19, 2012, 07:24 PM EDT

Realist!! I commend you to John Stalker's report proving a shoot to kill policy and his vilification by the British for not giving the report they expected.Stalker's report was legal (commissioned by the British) and recognised by everyone accept the British terrorist regime.Any other questions???

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maireadinmelb | May 19, 2012, 07:19 PM EDT

ANd further to the shoot to kill question - I dont rely on offical British government sources, but Bloody sunday, Majella OHare prove shoot to kill. ANd then you a bloke called Stalker - he disappeared quickly - Why was that????

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maireadinmelb | May 19, 2012, 07:17 PM EDT

REalist I turned the question on you - Bradford part of a government who denies human rights, why should they expect people behave in a democratic and fair way - you sew what you reap! Further you basic premise is wrong, at difference times in his life Bobby was held without charge or conviction, and there was nothing fair or democratic in the process that resulted in his hunger strike!

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seamus60 | May 19, 2012, 03:20 PM EDT

I condem all murder as well

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Realist | May 19, 2012, 03:11 PM EDT

I condemn all murder and I hope I'm not alone in so doing.

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seamus60 | May 19, 2012, 01:04 PM EDT

Realist do you condem the murder of vols though armed beyond threat ?

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Realist | May 19, 2012, 07:38 AM EDT

maireadinmelb: Please read the questions carefully....Do you believe that Robert Sands MP, who was arrested, tried, sentenced, imprisoned, and then chose to take his own life, had more or less legal and human rights consideration than Robert Bradford MP who was "executed" at close range with a hand gun by a man in a mask (a fellow 'volunteer' of Mr Sands in the Provisional IRA)? I am concerned....your last comment seems to support the murder of one democratically elected MP by the comrades of another. Please be clear on this, do you or do you not condemn the murder of Robert Bradford MP?

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Realist | May 19, 2012, 07:21 AM EDT

maireadinmelb: You seem a little confused....we already have your perspective and you were very clear (I can print it again if you're planning on denying it)....you stated that you consider those who mistreat their POWs as terrorists. In response, I asked if you consider the Provisional IRA, who took no prisoners and "executed" their victims, to be terrorists. Will you please answer?

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