Happy birthday, Bobby Sands! (March 9, 1954)
An Irish Republican militant and martyr, Bobby Sands grew up Catholic in the north of Ireland in the 1960s, and 70s, experiencing harassment and persecution for his faith as the Troubles unfolded. After being held at gunpoint by an Ulster Loyalist mob, Sands became convinced that militancy was the only solution, and joined the IRA. Arrested in 1976 for a bombing, Sands was sent to the Maze Prison, where he became a leader of the IRA prisoners of war, helping to organize and lead the 1981 hunger strike of the IRA members. Sands would be elected to Parliament during the strike, which contributed to the increasing radicalization of the Irish Republican movement, and would die before it finished.
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The Troubles 1969 - 1998
The Troubles is a term used to describe the period that engulfed Northern Ireland in conflict for nearly 30 years. It is a conflict that in several aspects, remains unresolved to this day.
The Troubles in Northern Ireland lasted from 1969 – 1998, until the signing of a cease fire, known as the Good Friday Agreement, took place in April 1998. Deep rooted in differing political and religious outlooks, the origins of the Troubles can be traced back to as early as the 17th century.
Through a series of photographic images, we capture the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the unrest, challenges and anguish of this contentious period. 20 images of The Troubles paints a picture of what life in Northern Ireland was like during this difficult time.
Civil Rights Marches, 1968-69
Civil Unrest in Northern Ireland 1968-1969: Civil rights activists, carrying banners proclaiming 'Civil rights for everyone', the 'Special Powers Act Must Go', and 'We want Houses Not Platitudes', march through Belfast to the City Hall in October 1968.
Arrival of the British Army, 1969
The first British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland, August 1969: Soldiers and army vehicles in the Protestant Shankhill Road, Belfast, after a night of violence in which three people died, 12 October 1969.
Tea and biscuits, 1969
2nd Lieutenant James Daniell and two riflemen of 1st Royal Green Jackets are supplied with tea and biscuits prepared by a local Belfast woman outside a house in Cupar Street in the republican Falls area of Belfast during the Battalion's first tour of duty in Northern Ireland. The tour lasted from 20 August - 18 December 1969.
Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972
Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972. Members of the Support Company, 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment pictured in action in the Bogside, Derry/Londonderry on Bloody Sunday.
Bloody Sunday Arrests
Bomb disposal robot
A remote controlled Wheelbarrow Bomb Disposal robot of 321 EOD Company, Royal Logistic Corps carries out a controlled explosion to make safe a suspected car bomb in a street in Northern Ireland. The Wheelbarrow was introduced in 1972 and was used throughout the Troubles.
News coverage of army operations, 1972
Operation MOTORMAN, carried out on 31 July 1972 by 27 battalions and two armoured battalions of the British Army, broke down the republican 'no-go' areas barricades in West Belfast and the Bogside and Creggan in Derry/Londonderry. The Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel John Mottram, being interviewed by ITN after the removal of the barricades in the New Lodge area of Belfast.
Operation Motorman, 1972
Three children and a journalist look on as a British soldier stands on top of a barricade prior to its dismantlement during Operation Motorman. Glass litters the ground and a cloud of CS gas hangs in the air.
Bag searches, 1973
An unarmed WRAC Corporal searching shoppers in Derry/Londonderry in January 1973.
Vehicle Check Point, 1974
A vehicle Check Point in the town of Strabane, on the road to Lifford in the Republic of Ireland manned by the Royal Welch Fusiliers in January 1974.
Hunger strike riots, 1981
Youths throwing stones at troops in the Bogside area of Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, during the hunger strike riots which took place over the Easter weekend of 1981.Troops of 2nd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, were on riot control duty.
Bobby Sands and the Hunger Strike Riots
An H-block demonstration in Guildhall Square, Derry/Londonderry, May 1981. A figure on the left is holding a picture of the prisoner Bobby Sands, the leader of the IRA hunger-strikers in the Maze Prison.
Apprentice Boys parade, 1981
The Reverend Ian Paisley, Free Presbyterian clergyman and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leading the Apprentice Boys Parade in Derry/Londonderry on 12 July 1981.
Sinn Fein march, 1982
A Sinn Fein march through the Rossville Flats area of Derry/Londonderry on 11 May 1982.
Wall murals, 1988
Two spectacular and intricate wall murals in Springhill Avenue, West Belfast. They were designed by Gerry Kelly, who was influenced by the work of the Celtic painter Jim Fitzpatrick.
Army dog, 1980s
A British Army dog handler of the Royal Army Veterinary Corp's Army Dog Unit Northern Ireland poses with his dog for the camera in the late 1980s.
Army dogs were used in a variety of roles in Northern Ireland, including security and detection work such as patrolling army base perimeters and locating caches of arms and explosives. Four dog handlers were killed in Northern Ireland during Operation BANNER. In two cases, their dogs also died.
Challenges to the peace process, 1998
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Dr Mo Mowlam, visits soldiers from 1st Battalion, Scots Guards during operations at Drumcree, 10 July 1998.
The Orange Order Parade and Service at Drumcree took place every year in July and was a regular source of sectarian violence throughout the Province. From 1995 onwards, it increasingly jeopardised the Northern Ireland Peace Process. In 1998, the new Parades Commission banned the Orange Order from marching along Garvaghy Road, setting up road blocks, moats and barbed wire. 1,000 soldiers and 1,000 members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary were deployed in the area. A stand off resulted leading to widespread violence.
On 12 July, three children died in Ballymoney when their home was petrol bombed by loyalist supporters. The incident caused international condemnation and the end of protests on a significant scale.
Armoured vehicle, 1998
Soldiers from the United Kingdom Stand-By Battalion, The King's Regiment (Liverpool), move out on patrol in Saxon armoured vehicles from Girdwood Barracks in Belfast in July 1998.
The Battalion had been airlifted to Belfast from Blackpool at short notice a few days earlier to assist the Royal Ulster Constabulary in controlling sectarian violence at Drumcree and elsewhere during the parade season.
The Omagh Bombing, 1998
Aerial view of devastation in Omagh after a 500lb car bomb was detonated in the town centre on 15 August 1998 by a dissident Republican Force known as The Real IRA.
The Omagh bombing was the single worst terrorist atrocity to occur in Northern Ireland during 1969 - 2007. Its consequences were made more severe by a telephone warning which misled police into evacuating shoppers directly into the path of the bomb. At least 29 men, women and children were killed.
The dead included visiting schoolchildren from Spain and unborn twins. 380 people were injured, many maimed for life. For the first time, Sinn Fein and the official IRA joined the worldwide condemnation.
Bomb disposal, 2003
An Army bomb disposal expert of the Royal Logistics Corps defuses a Loyalist pipe bomb that was attached to the gates of Holy Cross Catholic Primary School in Ardoyne, North Belfast at the start of the new school term on 5 January 2003. The children remained inside the school building while the bomb was defused.
Objects courtesy Imperial War Museum
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One of the best recordings of a legendary song, "Joe McDonnell" in which the hunger striker narrates his life and death (and those of Bobby Sands, Patsy O'Hara, and others) at the hands of the British occupation.
Particularly the line "And you dare to call me a terrorist, while you look down your gun, when I think of all the things that you have done!"
Summary of relevant history.
This song is sung in solidarity with Palestine. The Band, the Wolfe Tones (themselves proponents of a united Ireland and free Palestine) is pushing for Ireland to boycott Eurovision, though the lead singer, Brian Warfield (77) offered the band to play for Ireland if Israel is banned from the competition.
Ireland has a vast history of celebrating martyrs and (of course) resisting colonialism.
"Our revenge will be the laughter of our children" - Bobby Sands
Full lyrics under the cut:
Oh, me name is Joe McDonnell, from Belfast town I came
That city I will never see again
For in the town of Belfast, I spent many happy days
I love that town in oh-so many ways
For it's there I spent my childhood and found for me a wife
I then set out to make for her a life
But all my young ambitions met with bitterness and hate
I soon found myself inside a prison gate
And you dared to call me a terrorist while you looked down your gun
When I think of all the deeds that you had done
You had plundered many nations, divided many lands
You had terrorized their peoples, you ruled with an iron hand
And you brought this reign of terror to my land
Through those many months internment in the Maidstone and the Maze
I thought about my land throughout those days
Why my country was divided, why I was now in jail
Imprisoned without crime or without trial
And though I love my country, I am not a bitter man
I've seen cruelty and injustice at first hand
So then one fateful morning, I shook bold freedom's hand
For right or wrong, I'd try to free my land
And you dared to call me a terrorist while you looked down your gun
When I think of all the deeds that you had done
You had plundered many nations, divided many lands
You had terrorized their peoples, you ruled with an iron hand
And you brought this reign of terror to my land
Then one cold October's morning trapped in a lion's den
And I found myself in prison once again
I was committed to the H-blocks for fourteen years or more
On the blanket, the conditions, they were poor
Then a hunger strike we did commence, for the dignity of man
But it seemed to me that no one gave a damn
But now I am a saddened man, I've watched my comrades die
If only people cared or wondered why
And you dared to call me a terrorist while you looked down your gun
When I think of all the deeds that you had done
You had plundered many nations, divided many lands
You had terrorized their peoples, you ruled with an iron hand
And you brought this reign of terror to my land
[The crowd stands for the reading of the martyrs' names]
May God shine on you, Bobby Sands, for the courage you have shown
May your glory and your fame be widely known
And Francis Hughes and Ray McCreesh, who died unselfishly
And Patsy O'Hara, and the next in line is me
And those who lie behind me, may your courage be the same
And I pray to God my life is not in vain
Ah, but sad and bitter was the year of 1981
For everything I've lost, and nothing's won
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