Bobby Sands Mural

While exploring Belfast, I photographed this mural of Bobby Sands on the Falls Road. One of the things that struck me about Belfast was how much of its history is written directly on its walls. The murals are not simply public art. They reflect the political divisions, losses, loyalties and memories of communities that lived through the Troubles.

Bobby Sands became one of the most recognizable figures associated with that period. A member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, he was imprisoned in the Maze Prison for firearms possession following an IRA operation. There, he and other republican prisoners became involved in protests over their treatment and status. They wanted to be regarded as political prisoners rather than ordinary criminals.

In 1981, Sands began a hunger strike as part of a campaign for five demands concerning prison clothing, work, association with other prisoners, visits and correspondence, and restoration of remission lost through the protests. The British government under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher refused to grant the prisoners political status.

Then something extraordinary happened. While Sands was still in prison and already on hunger strike, a vacancy occurred in the British Parliament. He was nominated in the resulting by-election and, on April 9, 1981, was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone with more than 30,000 votes. His election brought international attention to both the hunger strike and the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Sands never took his seat in Parliament. On May 5, 1981, after 66 days without food, he died in the Maze Prison at the age of 27. Nine other republican prisoners died during the hunger strike before it ended in October. Their deaths intensified political tensions and became an important turning point in the republican movement, contributing to an increased emphasis on electoral politics alongside its armed campaign.

The mural I photographed stands on the Falls Road; an area closely associated with Belfast’s nationalist and republican community. It depicts Sands smiling rather than as a prisoner, surrounded by republican imagery and quotations associated with him. The words across the mural help explain why these paintings matter. They are not neutral historical markers. They show us how one community has chosen to remember its own history and its dead.

That distinction is important. To supporters of Irish republicanism, Sands became a martyr and symbol of resistance. To others, he remained a member of the Provisional IRA, an organization responsible for violence and deaths during the Troubles. Understanding Belfast means recognizing that both the events themselves and the way they are remembered remain complicated and contested.

In Belfast, even the walls can become historical documents. This one led me into the story of Bobby Sands, the 1981 hunger strike, and a period of Northern Ireland’s history that cannot be understood simply by looking at who won or lost. It has to be understood through the people and communities who experienced it and through the very different ways they continue to remember it.