Bobby Sands 66 Days (Full Film)

The story of Bobby Sands. While others in the IRA pushed towards communism because they were attracted to the manipulation of the texts of communism on the poor and oppressed, Bobby had a grand vision. Bobby Sands was an Irish Nationalist. And rather than follow the communist manifest he pushed for building the Nation that the Irish longed for despite being under the boot of Britain. He united a Nation. He refused food knowing what was in store for him. But he knew what he was doing this for. For his Nation. And he brought the world's attention to his Nations struggle. Tiocfaidh ár lá!

The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during The Troubles by Irish republican prisoners of war in Northern Ireland in the Long Kesh internment camp. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special Category Status (prisoner of war rather than criminal status) for convicted paramilitary prisoners. In 1978, the dispute escalated into the dirty protest, where prisoners refused to leave their cells to wash and covered the walls of their cells with excrement. In 1980, seven prisoners participated in the first hunger strike, which ended after 53 days.[1]

The second hunger strike took place in 1981 and was a showdown between the prisoners and the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. One hunger striker, Bobby Sands, was elected as a member of parliament during the strike, prompting media interest from around the world. The strike was called off after ten prisoners had starved themselves to death, including Sands, whose funeral was attended by 100,000 people. The strike radicalized Irish nationalist politics, and was the driving force that enabled Sinn Féin.