There were white-line pickets held across republican areas of Belfast today in memory of Bobby Sands who died thirty one years ago. Other events over the weekend include a parade in Tyrone by Dromore Memorial Committee. In 1981 Dromore was then part of the constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone which elected Bobby as its MP that April when he was forty days on his hunger strike. The march will leave from Saint Patrick’s Hall at 8.30pm and will proceed to the memorial to Bobby Sands and the nine other hunger strikers on Church Street.

On Sunday night in the Andersonstown Social Club prominent republican Gerry Kelly (himself a former hunger striker) will be giving the annual Bobby Sands Lecture. Also on Sunday night in the Felons Club there will be another opportunity to see ‘1981’, a drama written and performed by Tony Devlin and produced by Brassneck Theatre Company. The play starts at 8pm.