The pain of the Irish famine has not left the memory of the Irish people. Historian’s accounts will never change the death toll of one million no matter who takes the blame or not. The moral of the story is that those involved in Ireland’s struggle will never forget that dark past which the British government had a major role. There are still committed rebels willing to carry on the legacy of Mitchel, but, more importantly some of them are willing to die rather than lose their dignity and pride at the whim of the British government’s political oppression. If there is anything to be learned from Mitchel is that there was obviously a natural force inside of his physical self which would not allow the British government to simply squelch him as they did to those dying of starvation.. In another time when the British government was actually offering simple water and bread there were those Irish rebels who refused to play the political oppression game. Whether the Irish rebels consciously thought of Mitchel during their struggles in the 1980s they will still go down in Irish history as martyrs and heroes.

On a day that was approaching spring in 1981, an Irish rebel forced the entire world to sit upright and take notice that there was still political oppression in Ireland even in the modern age of civilization. One hundred and thirty six years after the onset of the Irish potato famine, Bobby Sands an Irish rebel, told the British government he was refusing their bread and water. In a Mitchelesque manner, Sands wrote a diary of his being a convicted prisoner in the hands of the British government. Unlike Mitchel, however, Sands would fight his jailers every inch of the way which would culminate in his death. If there is a God and he gives out passes to heaven for moral stands, then Mitchel is on one side of the Father and Sands and his ten cohorts who died in 1981 are there, singing as angels. I remember Bobby Sands well. It was his hunger strike that I personally began to ask why such things exist in the world, and, was political oppression the reason my grandparents left Ireland for America? I think there is an answer and the following passage by Bobby Sands says it better than a thousand narratives on the topic about the political and cultural oppression in Ireland. The thoughts of this Irish rebel were written three months before he died of hunger:

This quote by IRA member Bobby Sands sounds so similar to the language used by Irish Nationalist John Mitchel in 1860. But Mitchel refused to die in the hands of his captors--the British government. However, Mitchel did his time on the hulks that were old ships used as prisons. (2) There is no way to gage whether Mitchel would have changed his mind if there was no realistic escape plan coupled with the fact that he had more freedom of movement than Sands did during his captivity. On behalf of Irish Nationalism which John Mitchel championed in 1848, ten hunger strikers sacrificed their lives in 1981. The ten dead were: Bobby Sands Member of Parliament; Francis Hughes; Raymond McCreesh; Patsy O’Hara; Joe McDonnell; Martin Hurson; Kevin Lynch; Kiernan Doherty, TD; Thomas McElwee; and Mickey Devine. (3) In the spirit of John Mitchel, Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands gave up his life for the sake of Irish Nationalism forged from his early years in West Belfast, Ireland before joining the Irish Republican Army when he was eighteen years old. Sands was among ten hunger strikers to die in 1981-2 as the Irish continued their struggles against the British government. (4) He started his hunger strike on March 1, 1981 and died sixty-six days later on May 5, 1981 at the age of twenty-seven. (5) The second hunger strike that started in 1981 lasted seventeen months also led to their deaths. (6)

Sands was arrested in October of 1976 and sentenced to fourteen years in prison as Mitchel had been in 1848, for being in possession of one handgun. Sands did not obey the prison rules but led protests against the inhumane treatment which led to him receiving a bread and water diet. This protest led to his fatal finish as a lonely hunger striker. (7)

Sands was not convicted with evidence or fair trials as Margaret Thatcher and the British government denied these ten men their status as bonfide POWS or the accords of the Geneva Convention. Thus, although these ten men led by Bobby Sands requested only five basic rights or conditions of the British but which was denied to them. As a result of these five basic rights being denied the hunger strike ensued. They asked for the following as reported by Bridget Haggerty’s article, In memory of Bobby Sands, which included: the right not to wear a prison uniform; the right not to do prison work; the right of free association with other prisoners; the right to organize their own educational and recreational facilities; and, the right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week.

From prison Sands kept a now priceless diary from the first seventeen days he was held captive. In death, the poetry of Bobby Sands entitled Skylark Sing Your Lonely Song’s was published, which was written during his hunger strike protesting the wretched conditions he faced as a prisoner in the hands of the British government. Sands as Mitchel before him believed in the power of writing as force to be handed down through the ages as recorded history of the continued abuse of the British government. Sands in similar fashion to Mitchel was elected as a member of Parliament, while, both had ironically been convicted felons at the hands of British law when voted in to office. (8) In April of 1981, Sands won election to as Member of Parliament with 130,942 votes. Former inmate of Sands and Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams said that Sands the election win from Enniksellen was a “victory over his captors and over the policy of criminalization.” (9) The election of Sands while in prison led the British and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to pass a new law in the form of the People Act which disqualified prisoners from running for political office. (10) Sands also wrote a prison diary as Mitchel had done before him as a captive aboard the hulks. From Skylark Sing Your Lonely Song’s is one Sands poem titled Modern Times:

Modern Times (11)

Mitchel’s criticism of the British government for the famine tragedy as well as the apology he wanted in 1848 did finally received a soft condolence by British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1997. On June 1, 1997 Veronica Sutherland, Britain’s Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland dispatched the letter of British Prime Minister Tony Blair to the Irish people which was seen as a “message of reconciliation” that Irish actor Gabriel Byrne read at the 150th commemoration of the Great Irish Famine in Millstreet, County Cork. (12)

Ambassador Sutherland was present as Byrne read the letter by Blair. There were mixed reviews of Blair’s statement. It was not viewed as a formal apology that many politicians and people in Ireland had wanted in the wake of the deaths due to the Great Hunger in Ireland to the famine ships, and overall human suffering between 1845-50. But others saw the speech by Blair in a favorable light, in the sense that he reached out more than any past prime minister by at least acknowledging the pain and suffering of the Irish people. (13) He also gave credit for the positive role the Irish had in English society, while realizing that many were forced into leaving for other nations like America to restart their lives bringing their Irish heritage along although many died aboard the famine ships. (14) The following is Prime Minister Blair’s soft apology, which said:

All in all, Mr. Blair’s statement was, but, a weak, yet not formal apology of the entire British Government to the extermination-like famine policy. The underlying fact is that although Blair offered condolences to the Irish for the death of one million people, he was not the one who delivered the speech commemorating the Irish famine. In this light, his letter did not meet the apology test of John Mitchel. (16) The portrait below illustrates those hungry Irish peasants in Cork at the height of the potato famine. And the irony of this apology read one hundred and fifty two years later in Cork, of Blair’s statement, is where the famine took center stage. (17)

1. Bobby Sands. Writings from Prison and Skylark Sing Your Lonely Song. Forward by Gerry Adams with Introduction by Sean McBride. (Dublin: Mercier Press, 1998), p. 219

2. William Butler Yeats, The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Autobiographies, Volume III, p. 514.

3. Bobby Sands. One Day In My Life, with Introduction by Gerry Adams, MP. (Dublin: Mercier Press, 2001), p. 20.

4. D.M. Gould Ireland's OWN: The Hunger Strikes :Bobby Sands (1954-1981)
http://irelandsown.net/bobby.html

5. The Hungerstrikes: A Commemorative Project. A Challenge to David Blume. http://larkspirit.com/hungerstrikes/10bios.html; and Bobby Sands. One Day In My Life, pp. 14-15

6. Bobby Sands. One Day In My Life, p. 14.

7. Ibid, p. 13.

8. http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/AMisc/BobbySands.html

9. D.M. Gould Ireland's OWN: The Hunger Strikes :Bobby Sands (1954-1981)
http://irelandsown.net/bobby.html

10. Bobby Sands. One Day In My Life, p. 15.

11. Bobby Sands. One Day In My Life, p. 15.

12. Bobby Sands. Writings from Prison and Skylark Sing Your Lonely Song, pp. 86-87.

13. Nicholas Watt, Chief Ireland Correspondent. “Blair blames Britain for Irish famine deaths”

http://www.swan.ac.uk/history/teaching/teaching%20resources/An%20Gorta%20Mor/current%20views/TimesJune97.htm; and, Rachel. Donnelly. “Blair admits famine policy failure by

British.” The Irish Times. London Monday, June 2, 1997.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/1997/0602/fro4.htm, and Tony Blair. Prime Minister Tony Blair "Apology": Famine and Emigration Pre-Famine Life, Famine and Emigration in County Kerry. 1997 England http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlker/famemig.html; and, Tony Blair. The Irish Famine: Text of a message from the British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, delivered by Britain’s Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, Veronica Sutherland, June 2, 1997. http://www.britainusa.com/nireland/xq/asp/SarticleType.21/Article_ID.179/qx/articles_show.htm

14. Nicholas Watt, “Blair blames Britain for Irish famine deaths.”

15. Rachel. Donnelly. “Blair admits famine policy failure by

British;” and, Nicholas Watt, “Blair blames Britain for Irish famine deaths.”

16. Tony Blair. The Irish Famine: Text of a message from the British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, delivered by Britain’s Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, Veronica Sutherland, June 2, 1997.

17 Nicholas Watt, “Blair blames Britain for Irish famine deaths.”

18. The History Place: The Irish Potato Famine
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/begins.htm