
A tribute to Bobby Sands and Pat Arrowsmith: previously unpublished letter
Forty years ago on the Ist March 1981 the Irish Republican fighter Bobby Sands began a hunger strike for the principle of a return to special category status for political prisoners. He died 66 days later. Nine other republican prisoners also died on hunger strike. Their struggle and sacrifice transformed politics in the Six Counties and laid the basis for the emergence of Sinn Fein as a mass political party throughout the island of Ireland. During the strike Sands was elected as a member of parliament and when he died his funeral was attended by 100,000 people. The strike radicalised…