The same words could equally apply to Bobby Sands. He is not the property of any sectional or party interest but belongs to the Irish people. Like Spartan warriors, Sands and his comrades set their faces against any compromise with a regime determined to rob them of their identity.
All the brutality that the British State could muster was thrown at the blanket men and women of the H Blocks and Armagh Jail. But out of that maelstrom of human suffering, it was their common humanity that ultimately triumphed. The world witnessed their suffering and recognised in it the common cause of the downtrodden everywhere.
Considering all of this, the release of the previously unpublished comm from Bobby Sands, setting out his final wishes regarding his funeral and burial, was a very appropriate way to mark the 40th anniversary of his death. Bobby was given his voice again, his words, unadorned, were allowed to speak for themselves. Those words speak of a final injustice visited on Sands by those in whom he placed his faith and trust. The denial of his final wishes as to where he would be buried and the manner in which his body would be clothed, if true, bring nothing but shame to those who are responsible.
Considering all of this, the release of the previously unpublished comm from Bobby Sands, setting out his final wishes regarding his funeral and burial, was a very appropriate way to mark the 40th anniversary of his death. Bobby was given his voice again, his words, unadorned, were allowed to speak for themselves. Those words speak of a final injustice visited on Sands by those in whom he placed his faith and trust. The denial of his final wishes as to where he would be buried and the manner in which his body would be clothed, if true, bring nothing but shame to those who are responsible.
Bobby Sands gave his life willingly for an idea. He was no automaton or pawn in a greater game. Bobby Sands died to assert just the opposite. His death was an affirmation of his innate dignity and autonomy as a human being. It would be a tragic irony if the very autonomy and agency that the British could not take from him during the four hellish years of the H Blocks was denied him in death by those he trusted as comrades and friends.
The 26-County Fine Gael/Labour Coalition of 1973-77 were rightly pilloried at home and abroad for their hijacking of the body of hunger striker Frank Stagg in 1976. If the recently released comm were Bobby’s final wishes then those who wilfully ignored them are no better than Liam Cosgrave and his infamous Justice Minister, Paddy Cooney, when they ordered concrete to be poured over the grave of Frank Stagg, to prevent his body being placed alongside that of his comrade Michael Gaughan, which had been his final wish.
I would echo Anthony McIntyre’s sentiment that if there is a later comm in which Bobby declares a complete change of mind regarding his burial place, including his attitude to Milltown, then let it be placed on the public and historical record.
In a tribute to Bobby Sands, penned only days after his death, the then President of Sinn Féin, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh wrote: “His martyrdom was bravely undertaken, heroically endured, and has now been consummated.” Surely the least we owe Bobby Sands and his comrades 40 years on, is to ensure their voices are heard and the full truth of those dark and evil days of 1981 is told for this and future generations.
⏭Des Dalton is a long time republican activist.
The 26-County Fine Gael/Labour Coalition of 1973-77 were rightly pilloried at home and abroad for their hijacking of the body of hunger striker Frank Stagg in 1976. If the recently released comm were Bobby’s final wishes then those who wilfully ignored them are no better than Liam Cosgrave and his infamous Justice Minister, Paddy Cooney, when they ordered concrete to be poured over the grave of Frank Stagg, to prevent his body being placed alongside that of his comrade Michael Gaughan, which had been his final wish.
I would echo Anthony McIntyre’s sentiment that if there is a later comm in which Bobby declares a complete change of mind regarding his burial place, including his attitude to Milltown, then let it be placed on the public and historical record.
In a tribute to Bobby Sands, penned only days after his death, the then President of Sinn Féin, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh wrote: “His martyrdom was bravely undertaken, heroically endured, and has now been consummated.” Surely the least we owe Bobby Sands and his comrades 40 years on, is to ensure their voices are heard and the full truth of those dark and evil days of 1981 is told for this and future generations.
⏭Des Dalton is a long time republican activist.
............. TRUTH MATTERS .....................
ReplyDeleteAndrei Legasov ... Nuclear Scientist ... Chernobyl enquiry .. the truth matters....
"To be a scientist is to be naieve.
We are so focused in our search for truth we fail to consider how few actually want us to find it.
But it is always there.
Whether we see it or not.
Whether we choose to or not.
The truth doesn't care about our needs or wants.
It doesn't care about our Government's, our idealogies, our religeon's.
It will lie in wait for all time.
And this, at last, is the gift of Chernobyl.
Where once i would fear the cost of truth, now i only ask
What is the cost of lies......."