Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press {Newspaper} - 1981-05-06,Winnipeg, Manitoba 14 Winnipeg free press wednesday May 6. 1981 Sands an unlikely candidate for role of Irish Martyr a �1 a a to Lai Mac times Belfast Bobby Sands has be Corae the latest Martyr in the Long and violent Hist qty of Irish yet Only a few months ago he had Hartly seemed cast for the role. Robert Gerard Sands was bom 27 Yeats ago in he predominantly Prates Tant Rath Coole housing project on the no Theiu outskirts of Belfast the eldest in a Catholic family of four children. He attended Stella Marls school in the area unto 1969, when he most recent outbreak of sectarian trouble.= began in Northern Ireland. He was 15 years old at the time. Iii 1375, Nis Fumii moved out of Rath Coole because of what they said was intimidation by protestants and like Many other Cathola families moved to the twin Rook Section of Southwest Belfast. On leaving school Young Sands began an apprenticeship in a coach building company in Belfast where he worked for 2 1-2 years before being forced to leave because of his religion. He said. Threatened with gun other Catholic sources said that Sands had been this atoned at gunpoint at he factory and told he would be shot unless he left his Job where mainly protestant workers were employed. Sands who is said by provisional Irish Republican army sources to have joined Quot the bravos Quot in his mid Leens was first Arr sled in 1973 and sent to jail Tor five years Lor what authorities said was his part in armed robberies. He was released in 1976, but six months later he was arrested after a car Chaser following the bombing of a furniture company near his Home. He was jailed for 14 years in gain charges yet found not guilty of setting off the explosion at the furniture Plant. Before going to prison. Sands had married and his wife. Geraldie bore him a son Gerald but after Sands second imprisonment his wife left Northern Ireland for England. On entering the Maie prison. Sands immediately joined the of called Quot dirty protest Quot comprising those Fra prison a troubles relatives form group big last apr the Quot widows of terrorism Quot Are reaching out. A protestant woman whose husband and brother were killed by the Irish Republican army has opened a can pain on behalf of relatives of victims of Northern Ireland terrorism. Edith Elliott a 47-year old Mother of five children wants to bring cases of those who have had relatives murdered to the attention of the european human sights commission. Since the Campaign was launched a week ago through the protestant press 09 widows have sent in dossiers. Elliott said. A few Weru catholics. Quot you have to be a a troubles Quot widow to know what people like myself have been going she said. A troubles Quot is the euphemism used for the terrorist violence and sectarian strife that has taken at least 2,096 lives in Northern Ireland since August 1960. Her husband George Elliot was shot to death last june at a cattle Saie Yard in the Irish Republic. Jack Donnelly her brother was murdered last month in a Northern Ireland bar. Era wow refi ised to abide by prison regulations unless they were granted special category status. They refused to Wear any clothing but blankets and smeared their cells with their own excrement. Sands was elected spokesman for the prisoners in his Wing of the a Block the eight structures at the Maze prison named for their shape. Hunger strike Leader Sands remained a relatively unpublicized Figuett until he became a the Leader of the hunger strike by seven Maze prisoners last fall and Winter a a. Though to did nol participate in the then. But when it appeared earlier this year that the prisoners were not going to receive the privileges. Sands himself went on a hunger strike on March 1. Oliree other inmates later took up the fast. Sands ran for Electon to the British parliament and on april 9 Defeated a Veteran protestant politician. He represented the Fermanagh South Tyrone District which has a Catholic majority within protestant dominated Northem Ireland. A a last minute Appeal rope John Paul ii sent his personal Secretary. F Amer John Magee to Belfast to plead with Sands to end the hunger strike. But though Sands welcomed the personal cynic fix sent by the Pope the prisoner refused to take food. In the British House of commons yesterday speaker George Thomas broke the news of Sands death 1� the assembled parliamentarians with the following words �?o1 regret to have to inform the House of the death of Robert Sands Esquire member for Fermanagh in South the epitaph was greeted by silence Anim his fellow maps. 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Ira feuding hurts aim of reunification Belfast a the death of Bobby Sands has muted Northern Ireland s roman catholics against the British but their fighting Arm a the Irish Republican army a is split into feuding faction i and apparently far from its goal of reuniting Ireland. A there la a Lack of political agreement and coherence within the struggle itself a said Bernadette Devlin a Caskey the Radical Republican political Leader. Yet a there has never been More Unity Quot among North Eri Ireland s 500,000 catholics in their opposition to Antish control and domination by the provinces Mill Ion protestants she said. The hunger strikes by Sands and three other jailed guerillas have brought a truce in the squabbling Between the iras three factions a the Pron signals fighting a guerrilla War in Northern Ireland the marxist officials and the revolutionary Irish National liberation army. But this Lias not Given them cohesive direction. Ivor has it advanced the cause of reunification or tic Ira s i ultimate objective of overt Rowine the political establishment in the Irish Republic. The wept own a c it the provisional weekly newspaper said last week that the Dublin Given unsent of prime minister Churles Haughey represents ii Quot ruling class Winch has More in common with the British ruling class than with its own working United Ireland advocated a a we Are it said Quot to secure conditions in which ail the people of the country will unite in a democratic socialist a Gnu tiling less a i a suffice. Nothing else will he accepted. Nothing else can make up for the deaths and suffering of our Sands starved himself to death demanding that the British treat convicted guerrillas As political prisoners rather than criminals. Sands a Provo was jailed for 14 years in 1977 for illegal Possession of a handgun. The provos propaganda Campaign against this British policy of a a criminalizing the guerrillas has rekindled support for them among Northern Ireland a catholics. The Pravel signals have pinned Down 1q,000 police and Brt Tisi in the six counties of nor Plieni Ireland for More than a decade. David o Connell the guerrillas former chief of stall who is now vice president of their political front. Sinn fein said during the weekend they Piave the we inns men and Money to wage their a War of lib ration Lor years. British sources say the Ira can fight on for at least five years even without mass support. The British say the provos have no Mon Tuliau 400 hard Core to Eibers but sympathizers provide them with Safe houses in which to hide. Iran Perl and other support support ebbs flows this support ebbs and flows depending on How threatened the catholics believe themselves to be. But tens of thousands have taken to the Streels to support the hunger strikers. And 3 1,000 in the Fermanagh and Soili Tyrone District elected sunds to the British parliament Oil april 9. Many viewed the vote for Sands As a vote for the Ira but the District was overwhelmingly Catholic and North pm Ireland traditionally votes along sectarian lines. Sands was the Only Catholic candidate. The Ira traces its roots to Theobald Wolfe tone Leader of an unsuccessful rebellion in 1798 to establish an Independent Republic and the Rehels who proclaimed that Republic in the 1916 easter rising in Dublin. The easter rising was crushed and the Ira fought the British in 19i9-21 to win Home Nile. Ireland was partitioned in 1s22, with the Catholic South becoming the Semi Independent Irish free state and the North remaining in the United kingdom to provide a Haven for the protestants whose ancestors had been encouraged to Migrate to Ireland. Then the Ira fought a civil War against its former comrades who settled for less than a United completely Independent Ireland. The Irish free slate became an bide pendent Republic in 1937 and quit the British Commonwealth in 1949. But the passions of tie civil War still Divide irishmen. The Ira is outlawed in the Republic As Well As in Northern Ireland most southerners do not support the proves Homb and Bullet reunification Campalo but they bitterly resent what they Cotis Lucr the artificially created province in the North ;