Member of Parliament for Fermanagh and South Tyrone
In office 9 April 1981[1] – 5 May 1981
Preceded by
Frank Maguire
Succeeded by
Owen Carron
Majority
1,447 (2.4%)
Personal details
Born
Robert Gerard Sands
(1954-03-09)9 March 1954 Dunmurry, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Died
5 May 1981(1981-05-05) (aged 27) HM Prison Maze, County Down, Northern Ireland
Cause of death
Hunger strike
Political party
Anti H-Block
Spouse
Geraldine Noade
(m. 1973)
Children
1
Relatives
Bernadette Sands McKevitt (sister)
Website
Bobby Sands Trust
Military service
Allegiance
Provisional Irish Republican Army
Years of service
1972–1981
Unit
First Battalion South West Belfast, Belfast Brigade
Battles/wars
The Troubles
Robert Gerard Sands (Irish: Roibeárd Gearóid Ó Seachnasaigh;[2] 9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981) was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland. Sands helped to plan the 1976 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing in Dunmurry, which was followed by a gun battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Sands was arrested while trying to escape and sentenced to 14 years for firearms possession.
He was the leader of the 1981 hunger strike in which Irish republican prisoners protested against the removal of Special Category Status. During Sands' strike, he was elected to the British Parliament as an Anti H-Block candidate.[3][4] His death and those of nine other hunger strikers was followed by a surge of IRA recruitment and activity. International media coverage brought attention to the hunger strikers, and the republican movement in general, attracting both praise and criticism.[5]
^"1981: Hunger striker elected MP". BBC On This Day – 10 April. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
^"Legacy of Cage Eleven". Nuzhound.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
^"Hunger Strike 1980–82". BBC News. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
^"CAIN: Politics: Elections: Westminster By-election (NI) Thursday 9 April 1981". CAIN/Ulster University. 9 April 1981. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
same man from the pub spotted Bobby playing football on a pitch near the Sands house. As an initiation, he asked Sands to transport a gun from Rathcoole...
prisoners and the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. One hunger striker, BobbySands, was elected as a member of parliament during the strike, prompting media...
younger sister of Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) hunger striker BobbySands. Her husband was Michael McKevitt, the Quartermaster General of the Provisional...
H-Block committee. Carron was BobbySands' election agent for the April 1981 Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election. Sands, a Republican prisoner on hunger...
fantasy drama Hex (2004–2005). Fassbender first came to prominence playing BobbySands in Hunger (2008), for which he won a British Independent Film Award....
themselves to death in pursuit of political status. The hunger strike leader BobbySands and Anti H-Block activist Owen Carron were successively elected to the...
1981 Irish hunger strike, with particular emphasis on strike leader BobbySands; murals of international solidarity with revolutionary groups are equally...
Service storms the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege. 1981 – BobbySands dies in the Long Kesh prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking...
Back Home in Derry is an Irish rebel song written by BobbySands while imprisoned in HM Maze. The song has been covered by multiple artists, most notably...
written by Provisional IRA member BobbySands. The songs "Back Home in Derry" and "McIlhatton" were written by Sands while in prison at Long Kesh. "Forever...
had not resonated with young Northerners. Even after the election of BobbySands as MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, a part of the mass mobilisation...
album England Keep My Bones. Provisional IRA member and hunger striker BobbySands referenced "Wat the Tyler" and his poor in one of his wider-known poems...
BobbySands, the leader of the Provisional IRA prisoners, began a second action on 1 March 1981. Outside the prison, in a major publicity coup, Sands...
Marian Price Liam Quinn Paddy Quinn Billy Reid BobbySands Seán Savage Pat Sheehan Frank Stagg Jimmy Steele Bobby Storey Gerard Tuite Seamus Twomey Roy Walsh...
the other in order to maximise publicity over the fate of each one. BobbySands was the first of ten Irish republican paramilitary prisoners to die after...
Global Information
Provisional Irish Republican Army