25 years ago today...

25 years today The Right Honourable member for Fermanagh/South Tyrone Bobby Sands died, below is a link to his diary he maintained for he 1st 17 days of his hunger strike http://larkspirit.com/hungerstrikes/diary.html

Fair play to you Magpie for posting that. So many people today forget how much our countrymen suffered in our sad history. Definately a day that should be remembered!

[quote:2lkvrsdd]Fair play to you Magpie for posting that. So many people today forget how much our countrymen suffered in our sad history. Definately a day that should be remembered![/quote:2lkvrsdd] yup i agree with u

I posted it on irishwomenonline.com as well and Deb has just PMed me to say that there have been complaints and she has to remove it. I am absolutely furious! I'm going to try to calm down a bit firdt before I post my reponse but by God sparks will fly. Just f***ing typical of Free State partitionist insular thinking.

--

I'd imagine that Mr. Sand's links to a terrorist organisation might anger some people.

Calm down there a bit Magpie. Individuals are intitled to their own opinion. I most certainly take offence to "typical of free state partitionist insular thinking". Defo going to do you no favours there girl. My brother in law who lives in the very bottom of West Cork, you literally couldn't get further from the North and still be in Ireland knows absolutely everything there is to know about the hunger strikers and troubles in the north so I would advise you to rethink your comments before you post them here.

[quote:6k02gsrl]I most certainly take offence to "typical of free state partitionist insular thinking". [/quote:6k02gsrl] I wasn't directing that at the whole 26 counties Soho! Sorry if I gave that impression. I'm from ( and living in) the Republic myself. It was directed at the people who complained about the thread and had it removed. I'm not a fan of censorship!

[quote:m38g6buq]I'd imagine that Mr. Sand's links to a terrorist organisation might anger some people.[/quote:m38g6buq] It truly fascinates me when people come out with statements like that. I fins it especially ironic at this time just a couple of weeks after the big 1916 commemorations in Dublin. Yes Bobby Sands had links to a terrorist organisation. So did Wolfe Tone in 1798. The Young Irelanders in 1848 were terrorists. So was Robert Emmett in 1803. The 1916 leaders were most certainly terrorists. Those who fought in the Irish War of Independence drew their legitimacy from the Republic that was declared in 1916 but the British Government most certainly viewed them as terrorists. And yet we name train stations and streets and housing estates and schools after these terrorists. We celebrate their names and commemorate their actions. And we take advantage of the freedom that they earned us each and every day. They say hindsight is 20/20 but when it comes to Irish history it is rose-tinted. We see the actions of our forefathers as noble and just and right and never trouble ourselves with the moral dilemmas these individuals faced. Just because we live in the 21st century, born after this process was completed in this part of the island does not give us the right to judge those whose process is not yet at an end. It amazes me that the same people who would proudly tell you that their grandfathers fought the Black and Tans completely deny the reality of reality of The Troubles. I can honestly say I am ashamed of the Irish Governments and all the Irish people who called themselves Nationalists yet sat on their hands during the 1960s and 1970s. People all over the worlds recognised the nobility of Bobby Sand’s death. ( See Below) Yet Irishwomenonline ( Or should that be Freestatersonline) see fit to pull the plug on a thread that simply stated the fact that the man passed away 25 years ago today and contained a link to his diary. Disgraceful. Commemorations in other countries In Hartford, Connecticut a monument was dedicated to Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers in 1997. The monument stands in a traffic circle known as "Bobby Sands Circle", at the bottom of Maple Avenue near Goodwin Park [3]. The Longshoremen's Union in New York announced a twenty-four-hour boycott of British ships. The New Jersey State legislature voted 34-29 for a resolution honouring his 'courage and commitment.' Over 1,000 people gathered in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral to hear Cardinal Cook offer a Mass of reconciliation for Northern Ireland. Irish bars in the city were closed for two hours in mourning. In 2001 a memorial to Sands and the other hunger strikers was unveiled in Havana, Cuba[4]. In Milan, 5,000 students burned the Union Jack and shouted "Freedom for Ulster" during a march. In Ghent students invaded the British Consulate. In Paris, thousands marched behind huge portraits of Sands, to chants of 'The IRA will conquer.' The town of Le Mans has named a street after Sands, as has the St Denis département of Paris. The Hong Kong Standard said it was 'sad that successive British governments have failed to end the last of Europe's religious wars.' The Hindustan Times said Margaret Thatcher had allowed a fellow Member of Parliament to die of starvation, an incident which had never before occurred 'in a civilized country.' In Oslo, demonstrators threw a balloon filled with tomato sauce at Elizabeth II, the Queen of the United Kingdom. In India, Opposition members of the Upper House stood for a minute's silence in tribute. In the Soviet Union, Pravda described it as 'another tragic page in the grim chronicle of oppression, discrimination, terror and violence' in Ireland. At old Firm football matches in Glasgow, Scotland, Rangers F.C. fans are known to chant Could ye go a chicken supper, Bobby Sands?, to annoy Celtic F.C. fans who sympathise with the republican cause. In Tehran, Iran during the early days of the Islamic revolution in 1979 student revolutionaries sympathizing with Sands replaced the street name on which the British embassy was located on from Winston Churchill street to Bobby Sands street. This name still exists today although efforts are being made by the British government to have it changed. From Australia, Eric Bogle's 2000 album Endangered Species includes a song titled The Sign which describes his thoughts on seeing a "Free Bobby Sands" graffiti in Christchurch, New Zealand, several years earlier.

your hands must be sore after typing that :wink: some excellent points made though