Apart from the reaction around the world, over 100,000 people turned out for Sands funeral. Prior to the hunger strikes. Sinn Fein was insignificant politically. They were really nothing more than a mouthpiece for the IRA. This was the start of Sinn Fein rise to prominence, on both sides of the border.
The hunger strikers had no real hope that the Thatcher government would make any concessions. Their purpose was to prove they could not be cowed. That they would die rather than bend the knee is what brought hundreds of thousands into the streets .
"They have nothing in their whole imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of one Irishman who doesn't want to be broken"
Bobby Sands
Last edited by tom8517; 01-05-2018 at 05:41 PM.
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