I watched 66 days there during the week
What an extraordinary man he was. Ar Dheis De Go Raibh a Anam.
In 1981 Iran decided to change the name of Winston Churchill St in Tehran to Bobby Sands St. The British Embassy had been located on Churchill St. They had to knock out the back of the building onto the street at the block behind to make a new entrance so that their embassy wouldn’t be located on Bobby Sands Street.
The Iranians play wind up at a level TFK can only dream of.
39 years today his life was ended. A great great man
I’m glad someone marked this.
RIP Bobby Sands.
My smallie is called after Kevin Barry, Bobby Sands and Francie Hughes, he won’t forget
He had a kind face.
A total fucking waste.
Jorry I am convinced has the blood of Bobby sands, who was twice the man jorry will ever be, on his hands.
It was 1803 when we sailed out to sea
And away from the sweet town of Derry
For Australia bound and if we didn’t drown
The mark of the fetter we’d carry.
Our ship was The Gull, fourteen days out of Hull
And on orders to carry the croppy
Like a ghost in the night she sailed out of sight
Leaving many a wee’an unhappy.
In our rusty iron chains well we sighed for our wee’ans
And our good wives we’d left in our sorrow
And the main sails unfurled our curses we hurled
At the English and the thought of tomorrow.
At the mouth of the Foyle we bade farewell to our soil
And the sea turned as blue as the heavens.
The breeze filled our sails of a yellowish pale
And the captain lay drunk in his cabin.
The Gull cut the sea carving our destiny
And the sea spray rose white and came flying.
O’Docherty screamed, awoken out of his dreams
By a vision of bold Robert dying.
The sun burnt us cruel as they dished out the gruel
And Dan O’Connor lay dying with fever.
Sixty rebels today, bound for Botany Bay,
God, how many would reach the receiver.
I cursed them to hell as our bows fought the swell
And we danced like a moth in the firelight.
White horses rode by as the devil passed by
Taking ten souls to Hades in the twilight.
Five weeks out to sea we were now forty-three
And the strongest wept bitter like children.
Jesus, we screeched and our God we beseeched
But all we got was a prayer from a pilgrim.
In our own smelling slime we were lost in time
Hoping God in his mercy would claim us.
But our spirits shone high like stars in the sky
We were rebels and no man would tame us.
We were all about lost, two round score was our cost
When the man on the mast shouted, “Land hoe!”
The crew gave a cheer as we cradled our fear
And the fathoms gave up and we swam low.
Van Diemen’s land a hell for a man
Who would live out his whole life in slavery,
Where the climate was raw and the gun made the law
And neither wind or the rain cared for bravery.
Twenty long years have gone and I’ve ended my bond
And my comrades’ ghosts walk behind me.
A rebel I came and I died just the same
It’s on the cold wind at night that you’ll find me.
I’m told there was nothing about Sands on any of the Shinner media platforms. Is this right? Doesn’t surprise me at all seeing as the new SF brigade have forgotten what a real republic is.
It must have been an incredible time. The whole country must have been on a knife edge.
Were the 26 watching Dallas?
I was a very small boy but I have fairly intense memories of hearing the news and adults talking about it in the house, it was BIG
We had two goldfish then and we called them Bobby and Sands
I watched the year London blew up last night on you tube
Chris O’Dowd playing Brendan Dowd!!
Jez they wreaked havoc on London, got sloppy in the end though
They did the Guilford bombing too. Theres a brilliant book Time Bomb about the Guilford 4 and the balcombe Street gang.
Thanks must get that
The documentary stated Brendan Dowd was from Cork, he is from Ballymacelligot in Kerry I thought
My apologies to the Shinner brigade.
Incredibly emotional post.