Bobby Sands liked to carry guns to the chagrin of the British police. In October 1972, police arrested him after they had discovered four handguns inside a house in which he had rented a room. Sands was sentenced to three years in an Irish prison. In 1976 he was arrested again. This time he was seated in a car of four people. The vehicle had been stopped by police as it had fled the scene of a bomb detonation at the Balmoral Furniture Company. Police found a single gun among the four inhabitants. After two arrests, which netted five people and five guns, Sands' average was back to a pistol per person. These things always work out in the end.
During a second stint in an Irish prison, Sands deemed prison garb and prison work inappropriate for prisoners. He tried to convince other inmates that prison life was inappropriate for prisoners. Incredible as it may sound now, the inmates agreed with him. Prison life sucked. Sands presented his demands to the warden on behalf of himself and all the members of Cellblock H.
Stanley Hilditch was the governor of H-Block. Named "Rat" by the prisoners, Hilditch was stooped and gangly as but at least he was ugly. A career prison man, he had worked his way through the ranks until he found himself in position to negotiate the stipulations of a prisoner. Sands demanded civilian clothing and an end to prison labor. Hilditch, believe it or not, said "no."
Since the prison refused to yield to his demands, Sands decided to cut its expenses. He declined all prison food. The decision to refuse food created for him a new set of friends. "Hey, um, Bobby, are you gonna eat that?" But Sands popularity went beyond the prisoners-who-enjoy-a-double-lunch demographic.
Frank Maguire supported the hunger strikers. Maguire was an independent MP from Fermanagh. The hunger strikers cause became his cause until somebody had to break the news. Frank, um, prisoners cant vote. Maguire had a heart attack and died a few days later on March 5, 1981. His death mandated a special election for the empty seat.
Twenty-five days after Maguires death, inmate Bobby Sands was nominated for that seat as a Nationalist candidate by special election. But the Nationalist vote threatened to split between Sands and Noel Maguire, the brother of Frank. The two would face Unionist Harry West in a general election. Unlike Maguire, Sands had captured the thug vote. Immediately after the nomination closed on March 30, the Provo -- the outlawed Provisional Irish Republican Army -- met Maguire and asked him nicely to withdraw. (Okay, they threatened.) An ashen-faced Maguire withdrew his papers exactly one hour after the nomination had closed. Sands faced Harry West alone.
On April 9, forty days into his hunger strike, Bobby Sands was elected MP for the Nationalist district, Fermanagh and South Tyrone. Sands celebrated the result from a prison hospital bed. Twenty-five days later, the district required another run-off election. The cause of death was Karen Carpenter syndrome.
"Why are you telling me this?"
On Monday, the New York Times crossword puzzle had a clue that read, "End fast." The answer, of course, was "eat." It brought to mind Bobby Sands, a Provo member upon whom fame was bestowed for his refusal to eat a fscking sandwich. It is due to "heroics" by people like Sands that Northern Ireland remains true to the wishes of its majority, part of the United Kingdom.
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This article withstanding, the only people who give a shit about Bobby Sands are Irish Micks with a boner for a terrorist group known as the IRA. All the "facts" from this article were gleaned from an assortment of websites that gush poetic about Sands. A politically motivated crime is still a crime. An asshole with a gun is still an asshole with a gun. I don't know if the Micks ever looked at a map of Ireland, but the Irish State is the really big chuck of the island. If you don't want to live in the UK, THEN MOVE SOUTH!
