Sinn Féin says Bobby Sands statue ‘is going nowhere’ at anniversary event
By Gráinne Ní Aodha, Press Association
A Bobby Sands statue that was erected without planning permission “is going nowhere”, a Sinn Féin MLA has said.
The statue of the IRA hunger striker, who was 27 and an MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone when he died in 1981, was unveiled last year at the Republican Memorial Garden in Twinbrook, west Belfast.
It then emerged that it had been erected without planning permission, although Belfast City Council had not previously taken any action.
A DUP motion before the council on Thursday calling for the matter to be “reconsidered” was passed, with support from other unionists and the Alliance Party.
A Sinn Féin amendment seeking a review of the “current enforcement status of all such structures” across the council area was unsuccessful.
SDLP councillors abstained from the vote, after which west Belfast councillor Paul Doherty resigned from the party, stating that the statue of the IRA hunger striker “holds real significance”.
On Sunday, people gathered at the Sands statue to mark 45 years since the republican’s death.
Sinn Féin MLA Danny Baker said the hunger strikers, 10 of whom died during the 1981 Maze Prison hunger strike, had inspired “many generations and many generations here to come”.
He told the crowd: “The spirit of the prisoners (and) our communities can never be broken.
“Our opponents were shaken to their core last year and will continue to be because we are on a path, a path to Irish unity, based on equality and rights.
“There’s one very simple message I was asked to give today: the statue is going nowhere, not now and not ever.”
Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan told the crowd that Sands “is an icon and legend for freedom-loving people throughout the world” and that in recent weeks, his “memory and legacy have been attacked by those who have a selective memory”.
He said the emergence of the IRA was “a direct response to the violent and repressive nature of the Orange State, layered upon 800 years of British colonial occupation”.
“I say to unionists, save your lectures and your moralising for others,” he said.
“We will commemorate our patriot dead in our own way.”
He compared unionists voting for a reassessment of the Sands statue to efforts by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s to “criminalise” Sands.
“Forty-five years later, today in 2026, those in unionism will also fail,” he said.
“This statue of Bobby Sands has pride of place and will have pride of place here in Twinbrook, in Bobby’s home community for generations to come.
“When all of us here today are dead and gone, and largely forgotten about, Bobby Sands will still be remembered. He and his comrades will remain a beacon of light for freedom-loving people everywhere.”
Mr Sheehan also said that unionism “wants to turn back the clock” and that “we are within touching distance of ending the injustice of partition and reuniting our country”.
