[Clann]

Yesterday was the 24th anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands MP.

Sands was the first of 10 republican hunger strikers to die as a result of the British governments attempts to criminalise republican prisoners. Sands died on his 66th day after refusing food.

[The Immortal Goon]

As I said in an email home yesterday, "Anybody studying history can't do two things: Stand behind a church without questioning it; or harbor the thought that the English ever used restraint."

-TIG

[Sid]

As I said in an email home yesterday, "Anybody studying history can't do two things: Stand behind a church without questioning it; or harbor the thought that the English ever used restraint."

I'm afraid to say that's total crap. Compare Northern Ireland at the height of the troubles with Chechnya, engage brain for a few seconds...

The British Empire was so "successful" (on its own terms) precisely because the British exercised restraint. Why people have to resort to mindless cliche to bash the British Empire when it's so easy with a bit of intelligence and facts is beyond me.

Anyway, back on topic, I find it very difficult to admire a man who after all belonged to a terrorist organisation even if they fought for a cause with some justice to it. However he was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for his beliefs, in some ways proving his own case that the Republicans were a different class of prisoners to ordinary criminals. And he put one in the eye of Thatcher, which is always a good thing.

[Blue]

the palestinian version

http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/view ... 292#632292

Aspiring Homicide Bomber Talks to FOX News
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
By Jennifer Griffin


JENIN — Rafat Moussa Turkouman has a face you don’t want to forget.

Turkouman didn’t seem able to think for himself. He barely understood FOX’s questions, even in his native Arabic, and the brigade commanders told him what to say. He appeared extremely vulnerable to peer pressure.

[Maksym]

Tack your trash somewhere else Blue.

[Irish_Lefty]

They commit crimes you get treated as criminals no matter what the motive.

[Clann]

They are arrested by special powers, convicted in special courts, placed in a special jail yet do not qualify for special category status?

[Spin]

If they wanted to be POWs then they should have been held indifnitely until the "war" was over.

Good riddance.

[Irish_Lefty]

He was in prison for possesion of a firearms hardly the most war like and terrorist justification for giving him POW status . As they where Uk citizens they could not get POW status as they where not fighting for a internationally recognised army or nation.

[Clann]

Commemorations in other countries
The people of Hartford, Connecticut, dedicated a monument 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 (link) (http://www.homestead.com/hartford/hungerstrikers.html).

The Longshoremen's Union announced a twenty-four-hour boycott of British ships.

The New Jersey State legislature voted 34-29 fr a resolution honoring his 'courage and commitment.'

1,000 plus 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.

The street where the British Embassy is located in Tehran is named Bobby Sands Street (link) (http://larkspirit.com/hungerstrikes/bob ... treet.html).

In 2001 a memorial to Sands and the other hunger strikers was unveiled in Havana, Cuba (link) (http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/200 ... y33688.asp).

In Milan, 5,000 students burnt 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 announced it was naming a street after Sands.

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 Mrs. Thatcher had allowed a fellow Member of Parliament to die of starvation, and incident which had never before occurred 'in a civilized country.'

In Oslo, demonstrators threw a baloon filled with tomatoe sauce at the Queen.

In India, Opposition members of the Upper House stood for a minute's silence in tribute.

In Russia, Pravda described it as 'another tragic page in the grim chronicle of oppression, discrimination, terror and violence' in Ireland.

Reactions to Bobby's death.

[Spin]

He was in prison for possesion of a firearms hardly the most war like and terrorist justification for giving him POW status

He was an IRA member. During WW2 Germans and Allies were stuck in POW camps because of the side they were on. No different.

In Russia, Pravda described it as 'another tragic page in the grim chronicle of oppression, discrimination, terror and violence' in Ireland.

Oh the irony.

Bobby Sands ultimately took his own life during a struggle for power. Tough shit for him. Plenty of others were murdered by his organisation and they didn't get dick shit.