Bobby Sands R.I.P. 5th May 1981

droidman123 wrote: »

Its actually sad that this argument is even going on.in any other country bobby sands would be a hero and his anniversary would be celebrated accordingly. Even the easter rising celebrations is a low key affair every year,its disgusting.

That's because as a nation we are anything but the fighting Irish, just look at the current situation, everyone giving out but no proper marches or refusal to accept the policies

We are a nation that needs to be told how to live.

Seaneh wrote: »

It's not actually.
In both the UK and the US there is a massively disproportionate number of ex-servicemen in the prison system. It's actually pretty interesting to study from a sociological and psychological point of view.

Try reading this thread where its been pointed out the figures are skewed.

The sheer number of ex-servicemen in both countries would completely dwarf other professions meaning the results will be skewed.

For example if you had 200,000 ex military and 30,000 ex-teachers with about 1% of each group winding up in prison then the ex military numbers would be larger simply due to the greater numbers of ex servicemen as a whole.

The Irish did not invent the hunger strike; history may even record Mahatma Gandhi as its chief exponent, with his seventeen strikes against British colonial rule. In the 1990's, the hunger strike is more commonly found as a means of protest in the republics of the former Soviet Union than it is in Ireland. No one can deny, however, that dramatic hunger strikes in Ireland since the 1916 Easter Rising have made the world aware of the continuing tension between Ireland and England.

The use of the hunger strike as a political weapon in Ireland exploded after the 1916 Easter Rising. In 1917, Thomas Ashe struck for political prisoner status while in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. Force fed, Ashe died in prison and 40,000 mourners marched in his funeral procession, 9,000 wearing the uniform of the Irish Volunteers. Then in 1920, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney staged a hunger strike that was followed around the world. MacSwiney, an IRA commander in the Cork area, was arrested at an IRA meeting and sentenced to two years for sedition. Poet, playwright, philosopher, Mayor MacSwiney insisted Britain had no jurisdiction in Ireland. He died after seventy-three days of fasting, believing that "It is not those who inflict the most but those who suffer the most who will conquer."

The strike generated a spate of commentary on its efficacy and morality. Those who supported MacSwiney called his act noble, a response to tyranny, and his refusal to eat morally justifiable. Opponents judged the fast to death as suicide and, therefore, morally wrong. The Westminster Gazette's editorial at the time called MacSwiney a martyr and stated, "He has won his battle."

Bobby Sands, along with nine other inmates of the Maze/Long Kesh Prison in Northern Ireland, fasted unto death in 1981. They too sought political prisoner status. When Sands died after sixty-six days of fasting, many governments and publications from such diverse countries as Spain, France, Russia, Mexico, Mozambique and Poland expressed sympathy for Sands, an elected member of Parliament. The New York Times said he had "bested an implacable British Prime Minister [Margaret Thatcher]."

(Written by John Walsh and originally printed in September 1993)

In bold as it continues today & some opinions will never change.

will be having a thread for every self serving criminal who commited suicide while in jail, or just a select few?