Padraic Mac CoitirThis is a powerful, but very sad, comm written by Bobby Sands as he embarked on his hunger strike and he sadly died after 66 days on this day 1981.

I heard about this comm a few short weeks ago and I was surprised his wishes weren't granted. It's very clear from Bobby's writings that he was under no illusion as to what he faced and the enemy that he fought so hard against.
 
Very few people were aware of the goings on within the leadership of the Republican Movement and I presume most IRA volunteers trusted a group of people that few knew personally. I'd go as far to say some of those people were put on a pedestal and very few would have questioned them. Once many of those people were known by us we realised they weren't as great as we assumed.
 
Being in prison during the blanket protest we would talk about the likes of Adams, McGuinness et al and be in awe of them - Oh how naïve and ignorant we were! I'm not suggesting for one minute they were incompetent all of the time and I am more than aware those were very turbulent times we all went through.

In later years I was on the Belfast National Graves Association and it was an honour for me and the others to be involved in an organisation that maintained the graves of our fallen including those of Bobby Sands, Joe McDonnell and Kieran Doherty. We were also involved in the funerals of many Republicans and on many occasions we were asked to carry out the wishes of those who died.

Could the leadership of the movement not have carried out the wishes of Bobby Sands? Of course they could have. When out for a dander ar maidín I bumped into a friend who was on the 81 hunger strike and we got talking about the comm written by Bobby. He said what could have been done was for Bobby's funeral to leave Twinbrook, then proceed to Milltown or somewhere down the road, then the cortege proceed to Dundalk or Faughart.
 
The question I, and many others, would like answered, is why Bobby's wishes weren't carried out?

Padraic Mac Coitir is a former republican
prisoner and current political activist.

Bobby Sands' Comm

Padraic Mac CoitirThis is a powerful, but very sad, comm written by Bobby Sands as he embarked on his hunger strike and he sadly died after 66 days on this day 1981.

I heard about this comm a few short weeks ago and I was surprised his wishes weren't granted. It's very clear from Bobby's writings that he was under no illusion as to what he faced and the enemy that he fought so hard against.
 
Very few people were aware of the goings on within the leadership of the Republican Movement and I presume most IRA volunteers trusted a group of people that few knew personally. I'd go as far to say some of those people were put on a pedestal and very few would have questioned them. Once many of those people were known by us we realised they weren't as great as we assumed.
 
Being in prison during the blanket protest we would talk about the likes of Adams, McGuinness et al and be in awe of them - Oh how naïve and ignorant we were! I'm not suggesting for one minute they were incompetent all of the time and I am more than aware those were very turbulent times we all went through.

In later years I was on the Belfast National Graves Association and it was an honour for me and the others to be involved in an organisation that maintained the graves of our fallen including those of Bobby Sands, Joe McDonnell and Kieran Doherty. We were also involved in the funerals of many Republicans and on many occasions we were asked to carry out the wishes of those who died.

Could the leadership of the movement not have carried out the wishes of Bobby Sands? Of course they could have. When out for a dander ar maidín I bumped into a friend who was on the 81 hunger strike and we got talking about the comm written by Bobby. He said what could have been done was for Bobby's funeral to leave Twinbrook, then proceed to Milltown or somewhere down the road, then the cortege proceed to Dundalk or Faughart.
 
The question I, and many others, would like answered, is why Bobby's wishes weren't carried out?

Padraic Mac Coitir is a former republican
prisoner and current political activist.

2 comments:

  1. The sense of disappointment throughout this piece is palpable. Even with Bobby later changing his mind - for whatever reason - on Ballina, there is no indication whatsoever that he dropped his objections to Milltown or to being wrapped in a shroud. All we have, if Danny Morrison is right, is that there was an assumption on the leadership's part that Bobby wanted buried in Milltown.

    How they could assume when they knew differently is yet to be explained.

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  2. If the redacted word or words are released
    from the comm , that should make things a bit clearer ( if it said Miltown I am sure it would not have been redacted!) so I guess wait for the next move
    (there is a reason there was a redaction )
    ps I was always on the fence on regarding Richard O'Rawe & Danny Morrison versions of the deal offered before Joe McDonnell died. Maybe one man's word against anothers Now with this revelation & saga going about I know who is speaking the truth & it is not Pennys!
    Thanks Chris

    ReplyDelete