Details or Sample:
So Ill wear no convicts uniform
Nor meekly serve my time
That Britain might brand Ireland s fight
Eight hundred years of crime.
~ from "The H-Block Song" by Francie Brolly, Dungiven 1976

"I am standing on the threshold of another trembling world. May God have mercy on my soul."
~Bobby Sands, MP

Born 03/09/1954 in Rathcoole, Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, Bobby Sands was primarily raised in Abbots Cross. Even as a child, he was heavily influenced by the conflict between the Catholics and loyalists; his family, forced to move, due to intimidation tactics and a second incident where the house they were living in was sold to a Protestant couple without the Sands putting it up for sale. At the age of 15 years, Sands left school and went to apprentice as a coach builder but this, too, would be hampered by the battle in Ireland. He would later be forced from the job, at gunpoint, by loyalists.

Bobby was 18 years old when he signed on with the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1972. This was also the year with the highest death toll, resulting from the internal conflict and civil war in Ireland, known as the Troubles. Bobby Sands was arrested, later this very same year that he joined the I.R.A., and he found himself imprisoned, without a trial, until the year of 1976.

Having dropped out of school, Bobby took the opportunity of having so much time on his hands to learn Irish, and to learn to read and write, finding he had a great love of poetry. Always one to help out his fellow countrymen, he would later turn around and help to teach what he could. Upon his release, Sands opted to go and stay with his family, who had since moved to West Belfast, and he was eager to return to active service within the I.R.A. Additionally, he set to work on the different issues affecting the Twinbrook area, near his home, soon becoming an activist for his community. According to his sister, Bernadette, it was Bobby Sands who brought the Green Cross and Sinn Fein to their neighborhood. He became involved in the Tenants" Association and improved the transportation problems present in the area, also getting ramps placed alongside the roads, for the safety of the Irish children. Sadly, however, it was a mere 6 months before Bobby Sands would be arrested once again.

Following a bomb attack and a subsequent gun-battle in which two men were injured at the Balmoral Furniture Company at Dunmurry, Bobby was found in the area. Discovered in a nearby car, with four other young people, the police searched the vehicle and, when a gun was discovered, took Bobby Sands and the others into custody, sending them to Castlereagh. Here, they would be subjected to cruel interrogations and torture for six days, during which Sands refused to answer questions, save for the standard name, age and address. Even though he was taken into custody for the weapon, it was unclear who the revolver belonged to and there was no solid evidence linking Sands to the bombing.

When the case went to trial, in September of 1977, they tried to convict him of organizing the bombing, but when this (and the attempts to convict him on several other serious charges) fell through for lack of evidence, Sands was sentenced to an additional 14 years of imprisonment for being in possession of firearms (the handgun that had been discovered in the car). Ironically, the other men that had been with Bobby in the car, that day, each received a 14 year sentence for possession of the very same handgun.

The first twenty-two days of his confinement, Bobby would spend locked away in solitary, in the Crumlin Road jail. For fifteen of these days, he was completely naked, so it would take little encouragement to get Bobby Sands to join in the blanket protest, once they moved him to the H-Blocks.

The "H-Blocks" (so named because of their H-shape), had been built to house the large number of paramilitary organization criminals, with each block housing members of the same organization. Previously, prisoners having paramilitary connections had been given special privileges, such as free association with other prisoners in their block, the right to wear their own clothing rather than prison uniforms, extra visits from outsiders, and parcels of food. The old laws had stated that this special treatment was afforded to these prisoners because they were not considered common criminals, but rather prisoners of war.

Times were quickly changing, however; and on March 1st, 1976, the new Secretary of the State, Merlyn Rees, would end the Special Category Status afforded to the political prisoners. Older prisoners would be allowed to retain their special privileges and status, but newcomers would be housed in 8 newly constructed H-Blocks and would be treated as common criminals. This was considered an outrage; the Irishmen did not consider themselves criminals, and they felt that the British government"s treating them as such, clearly declared the Irish 800-year long fight, for independence, to be a crime.

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