The legacy of bitterness caused by the 1981 hunger strikes continues For northern nationalists, Bobby Sands’s election in 1981 transformed politics Sat, Apr 3, 2021, 06:00 Brian Feeney For northern nationalists, Bobby Sands’s election transformed politics. Within two years all leading Sinn Féin figures had been elected.
Forty years ago, on April 9th, 1981, Bobby Sands was elected MP for Fermanagh/South Tyrone with 30,493 votes. His election turned out to be the watershed of the Troubles. There were major events both before and after that election but they didn’t alter the trajectory of the Troubles: Sands’s election did. He had gone on hunger strike on March 1st that year, exactly five years after the British government’s policy of criminalisation took effect. Until 1976 prisoners convicted of so-called “scheduled offences” were categorised “special category”, were housed in compounds and enjoyed a range of privileges including managing their own compounds. In effect they were recognised as political prisoners.