Things changed forever after Bobby Sands' death

By Laurence McKeown (for Daily Ireland)

"Sagart ar an sciathan" (priest on the wing), the blanketman at the top of the wing called out. Footsteps, the rattle of keys, a cell door opened. We waited. So much of the blanket protest was about waiting; waiting on a monthly visit, a letter, sceal from outside, a wing shift, or waiting on the next beating. Muted voices, the cell door closed, a grille clanged shut. The voice of Brendan Hughes, former OC of the republican prisoners in the H-blocks and himself still recovering from his hunger strike, then rang out the length of the wing: "Bobby's dead."

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