Statue of Bobby Sands to be unveiled | The Refugees | Pope Francis

 

Statue of Bobby Sands to be unveiled

On May 4 at 3pm, a statue of Bobby Sands will be unveiled inthe Republican Memorial Garden in Twinbrook, where Bobby lived. The organisersof the event, all local republican activists and all inspired by the courageand self-sacrifice of Bobby and his comrades, have worked hard over recentyears to raise the funds for the statue. Former hunger striker Pat Sheehan whospent 55 days on the 1981 hunger strike will speak about Bobby and his comradeswho died.

There will also be a Bobby Sands Mountain Walk that morningand the annual Bobby Sands lecture will be given that evening by Pat Sheehan inthe Andersonstown Social Club.

Bobby was the first of ten republican hunger strikers to dieduring the H-Block hunger strike of 1981. He died on May 5. The others were:Francis Hughes; Raymond McCreesh; Patsy O’Hara; Joe McDonnell; Kieran DohertyTD; Kevin Lynch; Martin Hurson; Tom McElwee; and Mickey Devine. Nor should weforget Michael Gaughan 1974 and Frank Stagg 1976 who died on hunger strike inprisons in England.

I knew Bobby and Francie Hughes, Kieran Doherty and JoeMcDonnell. I also met Tom McElwee and Mickey Devine on a visit to theprison hospital in July 1981. They were all ordinary young working class men.Joe McDonnell at 30 was the eldest. The rest were all in their 20s. Inextraordinary times they revealed a depth of resolve that few are ever calledupon to demonstrate.

I first met Bobby in Cage 11 of Long Kesh. It was almostcertainly at one of the political discussion groups I set up. One of the Nissanhuts was a Gaeltacht where those, like Bobby, who wished to live through themedium of the Irish language resided. 

Bobby was very interested in the political debates anddiscussions and became an avid reader of the books, many of which we got fromold Joe Clarkes Book Bureau in Dublin and from The Connolly Association inLondon. The prison regime banned political books from coming in but as ever weand our friends and family outside rose to the challenge and replaced thecovers with more innocuous titles. The screws tended to ignore the books ofZane Grey and other western writers.

Bobby was also big into sport. There were two all-weatherpitches where prisoners could play football or soccer or simply go out for arun. Running around the pitch was better than the relatively small Cages.

I got to know Bobby well during that time. He was anintelligent, committed republican who was open to new ideas.  Many of ourdiscussions focussed on how we could turn passive support into activism. Healso instinctively understood the need for strategies and for a greater focuson political activism – of building and using political strength. It was atthis time that Bobby picked up on the concept of everyone having a role in thestruggle, no matter how small.

He had a deep interest in internationalstruggles. Unbeknownst to us our struggle attracted similar interest inLatin America, in the Palestinian refugee camps, the South Africantownships and in the front line training camps of uMkhonto weSizwe –Spear of the Nation – where ANC activists were training for operations againstthe apartheid South African regime.

Bobby was to become a historic figure for ANC activists,including Nelson ‘Madiba’ Mandela. Madiba was on Robben Island when Bobbydied. In his cell, in common with all political prisoners, he was allowedas a privilege a calendar on which he marked significant events. On the 5th May1981 a simple single line is written: ‘IRA martyr Bobby Sandsdies.’ A tribute, hand written, on a paper calendar on a cell wall inSouth Africa which recognised the bond between those of us engaged in freedomstruggles.

Bobby was also a writer, a poet, and a musician and writerof songs. Bobby wrote about the horrors of the H-Blocks. His smuggled comms-letters; poems; songs articles; and creative pieces about the brutal reality oflife for political prisoners and of British rule.

 Bobby spent one third of his 27 years in prisons. Hewas never interviewed on television or radio and yet his name is known andhonoured around the world.

His writings tell us much about the man. His poem, TheRefugees, is appropriate in the context of the ongoing genocide in the westBank and Gaza and the anti-refugee feelings being engendered by right wingelements in our own country, particularly in Dublin. Bobby’s poem is about theevents of August 1969 when thousands became refugees as a result of theunionist pogrom.

The Refugees

A hurried worried people, a human stampede to God knowswhere,

Were spat out from the back streets, for God knows who tocare.

Their little kitchen houses lit up the night around about

‘For God and Ulster’ was the reason that the refugeeswere driven out.

 

Oh little humble homes where the people hugged the openfire,

Oil-clothed floors and little ornamented cabinets thatthe neighbours would admire,

The little backyard havens where the youngsters wouldplay

And in the hall the little font of holy water to blessyou on your way!

 

They were little narrow streets where the door was neverclosed,

Where the characters and folklore were born and notcomposed,

And where, by the street lamp by the corner, the childrenmade a swing

In a concrete jungle were the hoker was the king.

 

Oh a kindly people, too clannish were they not,

A simple cup of tea or the milkman’s price, were thingsthat weren’t forgot,

And when there was trouble sure didn’t all of them muckin,

Wouldn’t every man amongst them go out and get stuck in.

 

Ah sure some returned; others? God knows where they’vegone,

Driven out in terror by that bigoted orange throng.

‘Tis well I recall those hurried worried people, theirlittle mansions burnt down,

As I watched them go in their thousands on the road toGormanstown.  

 

 

Pope Francis

The funeral last Saturday of Pope Francis was an occasion tomourn the passing of a leader who championed progressive causes, stood up forthose most marginalised and vulnerable while opening the door to reform withinthe Church. 

There is much more to be done to make the Church democratic.I am among those who are alienated by the deep absence of equality in theChurch’s structures.  Banning women from the priesthood is totallyunacceptable as is the opulence of some institutions and the unaccountabilityof church leaders, particularly over the treatment of children and vulnerablepeople.  But still there are good priests and nuns and many decent peopledoing their best to make amends.  

They include Pope Francis. The many stories of his deepsense of compassion for the sick and vulnerable and those who are victim ofabuse and violence have filled the airwaves and social media since his death.His loss is a huge blow to the institutional Church which often seems aloof tothe trials and tribulations of ordinary people while being less than open aboutthe sins of some within its own ranks.

 

In his 12 years as leader of the Catholic Church PopeFrancis frequently spoke out against inequality, injustice, climate justice,militarism and he was especially vocal in his rejection of those who scapegoatmigrants and erect barriers to them. "Migrants and refugees” he toldthe Vatican's World Day of Migrants and Refugees in 2013 “are not pawns on thechessboard of humanity." He said: “They are children, women, and men wholeave or are forced to leave their homes for various reasons, who share alegitimate desire for knowing and having, but above all for beingmore." 

 

But it was his unstinting solidarity for the people ofPalestine that will mark out the last years of his Papacy. For almost 18 monthsfollowing Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip the Pope phoned the Holy FamilyChurch every evening to speak to those who sheltered there. He continued to doso even when he was in hospital.

 

On Easter Sunday, in his last public remarks Pope Franciscondemned the “deplorable humanitarian situation” in Gaza. He urged Israel andHamas to “call for a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of astarving people that aspires to a future of peace.” Ar dheis Dé go raibh aanam dílis