Bobby Sands and the Tragedy of Northern Ireland

Book excerpt: Bobby Sands captured the imagination of the world when, despite predictions, he was elected a Member of Parliament to the British House of Commons while still on hunger-strike in the Northern Ireland concentration camp of Long Kesh. When he later died after sixty-six gruelling days of hunger he commanded more television, radio and newspaper coverage than the papal visits or royal weddings. What was the secret of this young man who set himself against the might of an empire and who became a microcosm of the whole Northern question and a moral catalyst for the Southern Irish conscience? In calm restrained language John M. Feehan records the life of Bobby Sands with whom he had little sympathy in the beginning - though this was to change. At the same time, he gives us an illumination and crystal-clear account of the terrifying statelet of Northern Ireland today and of the fierce guerilla warfare that is rapidly turning Northern Ireland into Britain's Vietnam.