John Sands has passed away.

Banjo String

It is with great sadness to learn that John Sands, father of Bobby Sands has just passed away.


May he RIP.

Ormig

I just heard, such suffering and pain he went through watching Bobby, thrown into the arms of the IRA due to the harrasment and torment. They were all thrown out of their home when Bobby was a teenager. Then throwing Bobby into jail and the awful treatment. What hardships that man went through even before the hunger strike. I hope he rests in peace now.


Each dirty trick they laid on thick

For no one heard or saw,

Who dares to say in Castlereagh

The 'police' would break the law!

Bobby was held on remand for eleven months until his trial in September 1977. As at his previous trial he refused to recognise the court.

The judge admitted there was no evidence to link Bobby, or the other three young men with him, to the bombing. So the four of them were sentenced to fourteen years each for possession of the one revolver.

Kevhog1988

Ar dheis de go raibh a anam

getzls

Ormig wrote: »

. They were all thrown out of their home when Bobby was a teenager.

Just checking, what Home was this?

Ormig

Oh, the loyalists intimidated him and his family out of more than one of their shall we say, residential abodes. I think in the circumstances to try misunderstand purposely his home, when it's abundantly clear what was meant, is in pretty bad taste.

"The sectarian realities of ghetto life materialised early in Bobby's life when at the age of ten his family were forced to move home owing to loyalist intimidation even as early as 1962. Bobby recalled his mother speaking of the troubled times which occurred during her childhood; 'Although I never really under stood what internment was or who the 'Specials' were, I grew to regard them as symbols of evil '.

Bobby's background, experiences and ambitions did not differ greatly from that of the average ghetto youth. Then came 1968 and the events which were to change his life. Bobby had served two years of his apprenticeship when he was intimidated out of his job. His sister Bernadette recalls: "Bobby went to work one morning and these fellows were standing there cleaning guns. One fellow said to him, 'Do you see these here, well if you don't go you'll get this' then Bobby also found a note in his lunch-box telling him to get out."

In June 1972, the family were intimidated out of their home in Doonbeg Drive, Rathcoole and moved into the newly built Twinbrook estate on the fringe of nationalist West Belfast. Bernadette again recalled: We had suffered intimidation for about eighteen months before we were actually put out. We had always been used to having Protestant friends. Bobby had gone around with Catholics and Protestants, but it ended up when everything erupted, that the friends he went about with for years were the same ones who helped to put his family out of their home.

As well as being intimidated out of his job and his home being under threat Bobby also suffered personal attacks from the loyalists."

That was BEFORE the beatings, stripping, humiliation in questioning. Which was BEFORE the trial which couldn't link him to the bombing, but gave him and each of his friends 14 years apiece for possession of ONE revolver. Not deserved, and his father went through so much with all that and the systematic torturing of Bobby in prison right up to the strike and Bobby's death. The constant attempts at the Prison wardens, in collusion with the British Administration breaking down someone in their 20s because they were Irish, well surely Irish people can see that is rough justice, really a war crime, crime against humanity. And that man, real man's father dying is not really a topic for mean digs or petty 'off' jokes.

getzls

Ormig wrote: »

Oh, the loyalists intimidated him and his family out of more than one of their shall we say, residential abodes. I think in the circumstances to try misunderstand purposely his home, when it's abundantly clear what was meant, is in pretty bad taste.


In June 1972, the family were intimidated out of their home in Doonbeg Drive, Rathcoole. And that man, real man's father dying is not really a topic for mean digs or petty 'off' jokes.

Not sure what you are talking about.
Then again, neither are you.

You seem to be quoting the fictional Wikipedia page.

The family were not forced out of Rathcoole. My brother and B. sands were good friends and my brother continued this friendship after the family moved.

Sadly this friendship had to end.

Ormig

getzls wrote: »

Not sure what you are talking about.
Then again, neither are you.

You seem to be quoting the fictional Wikipedia page.

The family were not forced out of Rathcoole. My brother and B. sands were good friends and my brother continued this friendship after the family moved.

Sadly this friendship had to end.

Well you may be aware then that even though that text appeared in Wikipedia, it was available to read in an phoblacht in the 80 s. Bobby wrote it himself as a biography during his first few weeks on his last hunger strike. Those were quoted directly from the man himself, that's why I put it in. I wouldn't see any reason not to believe his own account, nor have I ever come across a contradiction of anything written there in the past 33 years.

The point still remains your original post was in bad taste, incredibly so, in a thread about the man's father dying. You would imagine anyone would have sympathy after the suffering John went through over Bobby, particularly someone who claims their brother was friends with Bobby. Rather than making a stupid not funny 'joke'.

getzls

You are reading bad taste into my post when there was none and none intended.

I have every sympathy for the death of Mr. Sands. And for that matter his Son.

What I do dispute is the account of the family's time I'm Rathcoole.

I know a different version and why his.Son broke the friendship with my also late Brother.

Though I don't intend to post it as really there is no point.

end of the road

only came upon this now, rest in peace old fella, for you shal suffer no more

jhon boy

and there was many beer drunk about time the dirty fu ck kicked the bucket

MOD: See in-thread warning below.

pO1Neil

R.I.P to the father of the greatest Irishman of the last 50 years.

Black Swan

jhon boy wrote: »

and there was many beer drunk about time the dirty fu ck kicked the bucket

MOD WARNING:
Such a posting in an RIP thread was very inappropriate, way below standards, and trollish. Do not repeat such posting behavior in the future in any of the 8 Politics forum/subforums.

DEFTLEFTHAND

His son's staunch stance to his cause even earned the respect of some Loyalist prisoners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFP0wHOBg_E