Bobby Sands (2)

Robert Gerard Sands (Irish: Roibeard Gearóid Ó Seachnasaigh), commonly known as Bobby Sands, (9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981), was an Irish Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer, he was the leader of the 1981 hunger strike, in which Irish republican prisoners sought to regain Special Category Status. During his strike he was elected as a member of the United Kingdom Parliament. Sands died in the prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27. The announcement of his death prompted several days of riots in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. He managed to write poetry and songs in prison that were then smuggeled outside, his funeral march in Belfast was attended by more than 100.000 people.