Bobby Sands Book Launched
The Vice-President of the European Parliament, Roberta Angelilli MEP, launched a book about Bobby Sands last Thursday, July 15th, at the European Parliament Offices in Rome. ‘Il diario di Bobby Sands. Storia di un ragazzo irlandese’ is the translation by Italian journalist Silvia Calamati of a book first published in Ireland a few years ago by Denis O’Hearn and Laurence McKeown. That book, ‘I Awoke This Morning – A Biography of Bobby Sands for Younger Readers’, has also been published in Irish – ‘D’éirigh mé ar maidin: Beathaisnéis Roibeaird Uí Sheachnasaigh do Léitheoirí Níos Óige’.
Welcoming the publication, the secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust, Danny Morrison, said: “Once again we see international recognition of and respect for the struggle by Irish political prisoners, in particular the hunger strikers and that of the name Bobby Sands. Their sacrifice has stood the test of time and what they came through in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh is an indictment of successive British governments. But when one looks at the tense situation in Maghaberry it is clear that the British government is slow to learn from its past mistakes. I would like to congratulate Silvia Calamati on the publication of this book and her ongoing commitment to covering events in the North of Ireland.”
Footnote: many streets around the world have been named after Bobby Sands. In 1981 the Iranian government officially changed the name of Winston Churchill Boulevard where the British Embassy is based to Bobby Sands Street. The response of the British was to seal the entrance to their embassy on Bobby Sands Street and knock through the wall into Ferdowsi Avenue, which is now their new address. In 2001, a memorial to Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers was unveiled in Havana, Cuba.
Silvia Calamati will be appearing in An Chulturlann, Falls Road, on July 31st, as part of Féile an Phobail. She will be launching ‘Scéalta Ban ó Thuaisceart na hÉireann’, an Irish language version of her book, ‘Women’s Stories From The North of Ireland’.
Where Are You Really From?
Tim Brannigan’s mother was from Belfast, his father from Ghana. Tim’s Irish republican activism led to his arrest and imprisonment in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh in the 1990s. Tim’s powerful memoir explores the meaning of identity and is a book which has garlanded praise across the full spectrum of the media. As part of Féile an Phobail’s Youth Fringe Festival Tim will be speaking on August 6th in St Mary’s University College, Belfast, about his experiences. Here, veteran republican Gerry O’Hare reviews Tim’s memoir.
To be an IRA Volunteer in Belfast during the seventies was a dangerous life-style choice. Its members mingled in crowds to avoid detection and took whatever steps they could to survive and remain at liberty. The varied precautions they took have now become legend and folklore. Similarly, IRA supporters took risks, protected activists, marched on the streets, and suffered abuse. But imagine being black, from Beechmount, with the Brits all around, and being a supporter of the ‘RA!
Enough said.
This book is the tale of just such a person; his beginnings, his growing
up in Belfast, working for the Movement and the struggle and – surprise, surprise - his eventual capture and imprisonment.
Tim Brannigan was born to a strong and resourceful woman, Peggy Brannigan, from Carrickhill. A married woman we hear that she fell for the charms of a Ghanaian medical doctor. Already married, with three children, she thought she could get away with her indiscretion - but giving birth to a bouncing black baby put paid to that. That’s where this story begins. Luck, which appeared to have forsaken her, returned to Peggy’s side.
For years, she had been a helper at ‘St Joseph’s Baby Home’ and - on occasions – had brought babies home with her for the weekend. Tim’s stepfather, Tom, we learn was completely unsuspecting of Peggy’s dalliance and, after his birth, Tim was quickly bundled off to St Joseph’s.
Peggy simply told family and friends that her baby had died at birth.
Traumatized by her own deceitfulness, she hatched a cunning plan to bring Tim home – by adopting him. This plan worked quite well, as neighbours were aware of Peggy’s big heart for orphan babies. Thus Tim becomes a fully paid up member of the Brannigan family and gains three elder brothers at one swoop, so to say. Another brother is born, and the unsuspecting Tom is eventually shown the door by Peggy who takes on another man in her life – Chris.
Being the only black kid on the block in Belfast brought daily problems for Tim. School time appears to have been mostly ok, apart from the usual racist comments from the odd school bully. But the Brannigans form a wagon around the kid - and he retells his upbringing and school days with much humour.
Growing up in the seventies brought the young Tim into the real world and this reviewer’s eye is caught by the title of a chapter: ‘Young, Lifted and Black’ (a parody of a hit song of the time ‘Young, Gifted and Black’, originally written by Nina Simone). Through education and determination to make a life for himself, Tim gets to Liverpool university and gains a degree. Qualified, he looks for work in Britain but soon hankers for home and Peggy.
Earlier, as a young boy, he had sold An Phoblacht for Sinn Fein, but getting on in college was his real goal. When he comes home, he tells us, it’s not long before the IRA comes a-knocking at his door. The end result is a tragedy for himself, his mother and brothers. He allows two IRA men to hide weapons in his mother’s old wreck of a car and is spotted by a local tout. Within a day, the family home is raided and all are hauled off to Castlereagh holding centre.
Fearful for his mother, he owns up and takes full responsibility. That sends him to jail for seven years and he eventually ends up in the H-Blocks where he knuckles down and does his time. The story recalls his attempts to become a journalist in which endeavour he shows great resilience. He never lets his various employers know of his conviction, however, and lives under a continual, fearful shadow that they will find out and give him the sack.
He ends up in the Irish News and, when another journalist warns him of threats to expose him, he informs his employers. They are understanding. Unfortunately, the journalist who warned him is not so lucky. It was Martin O’Hagan who was assassinated by loyalists for his courageous expose of their criminality.
The latter part of the book tells a poignant story of his battle of wits with the brave Peggy as she fights serious illness. Tim decides to give up his career to stay at home, full-time to nurse his mother, along with his other siblings. It’s a harrowing and heartbreaking end for his mother who is the real centre of this fascinating book. It is a short book but with many twists and turns. Only a Peggy Brannigan could hatch it.
Il diario di Bobby Sands
This week sees the launch in Italy of a new book about Bobby Sands. Silvia Calamati, a journalist and a writer, has translated ‘I arose this morning…A Biography of Bobby Sands for Younger Readers’ by Denis O’Hearn and Laurence McKeown which was published a few years ago.
She was in Belfast last week – on the anniversaries of the death of Bobby Sands and Francis Hughes – to speak about her latest translation ‘Il diario di Bobby Sands. Storia di un ragazzo irlandese’, published by Castelvecchi, Rome.
Since 1982 Silvia has been interested in the Irish question and has lived in Dublin and Belfast for considerable periods of her time. From 1990 until 1995 she wrote for the Italian weekly magazine ‘Avvenimenti’.
Since 1999 she has been working as a free-lance journalist for many Italian radio stations, in particular with RAI NEWS 24 and RAI-Radiotelevisione Italiana, reporting on the main events throughout the Irish conflict.
Previously, she has translated ‘One day in my life’ by Bobby Sands ( ‘Un giorno della mia vita’, Feltrinelli, Milan, 1996), and ‘Renewing the Irish Church’ by Joseph McVeigh, (‘Guerra e liberazione in Irlanda. La Chiesa del conflitto’, Edizioni della Battaglia, Palermo 1998). She is the author of ‘Irlanda del Nord. Una colonia in Europa’ (Edizioni Associate, 2005) (‘Northern Ireland. A Colony in Europe’).
In 2001 she published ‘Figlie di Erin. Voci di donne dell’Irlanda del Nord’ (Edizioni Associate). In 2002 this book was released in Belfast in English, with the title ‘Women’s Stories from the North of Ireland’ (Beyond the Pale Publications). In 2006 Icaria (Barcelona) published it in Spanish, with the title ‘Hijas de Erin. Voces de Mujeres de Irlanda del Norte’. In 2007 this book won two important awards in Italy: ‘Concorso Internazionale ‘Storie di Donne’ (Salerno) and ‘Premio ‘Il Paese delle Donne’, awarded by the International Women’s Centre in Rome.
In 2008 she published ‘Qui Belfast. 20 anni di cronache dall’Irlanda di Bobby Sands e Pat Finucane’ (‘News from Belfast. 20 years of articles from the country of Bobby Sands and Pat Finucane’).
The book, a collection of articles written mostly by Silvia Calamati from 1984 to 2004, covers the most important political and social events which resulted in the outcome by the Northern Ireland political parties signing the historical Good Friday Agreement in April 1998. In 2002 she was awarded the TOM COX AWARD at the West Belfast Festival for her commitment as a writer and a journalist.
ITALIAN VERSION
Silvvia Calamati
Figlie di Erin. Voci di donne dell’Irlanda del Nord
Edizioni Associate, Roma, 2001
ISBN 8826704139
ENGLISH VERSION
Silvia Calamati
Women’s Stories from the North of Ireland
Beyond the Pale, Belfast, 2002
SPANISH VERSION
Silvia Calamati
Hijas de Erin – Voces de Mujeres de Irlanda del Norte
Icaria, Barcelona, 2006
See also -
Garden Rededicated in Finistere
Irish republican sympathizers gathered last Sunday, 9th May, to inaugurate the recently redesigned Bobby Sands Garden in Plougastel, Finistere, France. This garden was first inaugurated in May 1991 on the tenth anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands by Mr Andre Legac, the then mayor of the town. The whole garden has now been re-landscaped and is an extremely attractive site (in the centre of town) and sight (beautiful garden with lots of plants and flowers) to commemorate the life and sacrifice of Bobby Sands and all the hunger strikers.
A plaque was unveiled by the current mayor of the town, Mr Dominique Cap and it reads: ‘GARDEN BOBBY SANDS, IRISH MP MARTYR, 1954-1981’
Bobby Sands Corsica Tribute
A musical tribute to IRA Volunteer Bobby Sands has appeared on a Corsican nationalist website - CorsicaNustrale’s Channel – and also on Youtube. CorsicaNustrale campaigns on behalf of Yvan Colonna, a political prisoner who is serving a life sentence.
Remembering Deir Yassin
The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when Zionist paramilitaries, on the eve of Israel declaring independence, attacked the Palestinian village and killed over one hundred villagers, including women and children. The attack, aimed at breaking Arab morale, created terror within the Palestinian community and many in surrounding villages fled their homes and have been barred from returning ever since.
Dina Elmuti, a graduate student in the Masters in Social Work program at Southern Illinois University, at Carbondale, recalls the home her grandmother was driven from, in this article from Window Into Palestine.
Irish Resistance Marked In Italy
The memory of Bobby Sands and the struggle for Irish freedom are to be celebrated in Italy at a special conference on 24th April. The Historical Institute of Resistance in Pistoia (a city near Florence in Tuscany), which is an institute related to Italian anti-fascist resistance, each year chooses an internationalist theme: last year it was South Africa; in 2008 it was Ruanda.
This year, 2010, it will be dedicated to the Irish struggle for freedom. The City Council of Pistoia and the Province of Pistoia will both promote additional events throughout the province.
Planning began on the 9th of January for students of secondary schools at a conference hosted by the journalist and the author of the book ‘Storia del conflitto anglo-irlandese. Otto secoli di persecuzione inglese’, Riccardo Michelucci. A second conference of 300 students of Irish History, attended by journalists and local television, was addressed by the author Silvia Calamati (and translator of Bobby Sands’ writings) on the 16th January. A short film on Bloody Sunday was shown and was followed by a Q & A.
Former republican prisoner Rosaleen McCorley will address the 24th April conference on the historic legacy of the 1981 hunger strike and the event will also include screenings of films related to resistance to British rule in Ireland and the political gains made by the Republican Movement. For further information contact Salvatore at dinobros@tiscali.it
Laughter Of Our Children
Blogger, 27-year-old Jafar Alam, a Muslim, based in Toronto, posted this painting on his blog, Divine Breezes, which was inspired by ‘the genius of Banksy’, the British graffiti artist whose real identity remains a mystery.
Jafar writes below the painting: ‘Inspired by the genius of Banksy and the perpetual, revolutionary words of Bobby Sands:
‘“They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. We refuse to lie here in dishonor! We are not criminals, but Irishmen! This is the crime of which we stand accused. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal…Our revenge will be the laughter of our children” – Bobby Sands
‘We refuse to lie here in dishonor! We are not terrorists, but Palestinians. This is the crime of which we stand accused. Our crime remains that we were born Palestinian.’
Cuban Dies on Hunger Strike
A debate has raged on many websites in relation to the death in a Cuban prison of a hunger striker on February 23rd last. Here is one example from the website of The World Association of International Studies (WAIS).
JOHN HEELAN: The Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo has died in hospital as a result of his 85-day hunger strike. He started his strike as a protest against Cuban prison authorities refusing to allow him to wear white–a symbol of Cuban resistance.
Nearly 30 years ago, Bobby Sands, a Republican Irish dissident and member of the IRA, died from his hunger strike. He started his strike as a protest against Northern Irish prison authorities who insisted that he and his colleagues wear prison uniforms even though the latter claimed to be political prisoners (and Sands was an elected MP until Thatcher changed the law).
In December 2001, a memorial to Bobby Sands was unveiled in Havana, Cuba by the the IRA President, Gerry Adams, who was later greeted by Fidel Castro. Can we expect to see a similar memorial in Havana to Orlando Zapata Tomayo? If not, why not?
ALAIN de BENOIST replies: If I follow John’s reasoning, the memorial to Bobby Sands having been unveiled in Havana, Orlando Zapata Tomayo’s memorial should be erected in Ireland, not in Cuba! But I am afraid the comparison is not very significant. The great Bobby Sands was jailed for political reasons (I was extremely sad when he died). But, to my best knowledge, Orlando Zapata Tomayo, while being described since 2004 as a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty International, never had any political activities before his arrest. He was arrested several times for crimes without any political content. He mainly started his hunger strike to obtain a television and a cellular phone in his jail.
Anyway, Zapata Tamayo’s death has been publicized all around the world as the death of a “victim of the Cuban dictatorship.” The media does not give the same publicity to everything. The murder of Claudia Larissa Brizuela, member of the National Front of People’s Resistance (FNRP), who was killed in Honduras on 24 February (one day after Zapata Tamayo’s death), has not been publicized anywhere. The discovery, in last December, in a mass grave located in La Macarena (Colombia), of 2,000 bodies of trade unionists and peasant leaders murdered by paramilitary and special forces of the Colombian army was not publicised much either.
JOHN EIPPER (editor of WAIS) comments: Alain’s last point is unsettling for someone about to board a plane for Colombia. By the by, there won’t be many WAIS postings tomorrow morning, as we must leave for the airport at 4:30 AM. When we’re in Colombia (Cartagena, Santa Marta and Medellín), I’ll see what I can find out about the murders at La Macarena.
3,000 Weekly Visitors
A study of the statistics to this site shows that from across the world it receives an average of 3,000 visitors per week. There were over 700 visitors last Monday, March 1st, the date in 1981 when Bobby Sands commenced his hunger strike. In the last week of 2009 we had 8,457 visitors and the busiest day since the site was upgraded in September 2008 was on Wednesday, 16th December, 2009, when we received 3,886 visitors. The busiest month was March 2009 when there were 21,407 views.
Wikepedia is the largest daily referrer and the most popular pages after the Home Page and the writings of Bobby Sands are the biographies of the hunger strikers, photographs, songs and lyrics, and book reviews.
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