Bobby Sands Trivia Quiz

Answer: Belfast

When he was six years old, Bobby moved with his family from the Abbots Cross section of Belfast (he also lived in a house on Doonberg Drive for a time) to Rathcoole. In 1972, at the age of 18, Bobby again moved with his family to the Twinbrook housing estate in west Belfast.

Answer: Provisional IRA

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) had its beginnings in 1916 when many Irish people fought the British for independence. In 1921, independence was granted to Ireland except for the six counties in the north east (Northern Ireland) that remained under British control. The IRA continued to fight Britain in Northern Ireland using violence and demanding that Northern Ireland be free to unite with the rest of Ireland. The IRA was a secret organization whose members were Roman Catholic. The Provisional IRA emerged in 1969.

Answer: Three years

Although Bobby was given a five-year sentence, he ended up serving from April 1973 to April 1976. It was during this time in prison that Bobby became much more radical.

Answer: Maze Prison

Maze Prison, aka Long Kesh, was on the site of a former RAF station within the town of Lisburn, Northern Ireland. By the end of 1975, nearly all of the paramilitary prisoners were IRA members. These IRA inmates claimed to be political prisoners; and, at first were given a Special Category Status; however, in 1976 the Special Category Status was removed and the IRA prisoners were treated as common criminals without all prior privileges within Maze Prison.

Answer: Blanket protest

The IRA prisoners, who were housed in the H-block cells, refused to wear the prison uniform shortly after they became required to do so. At first, they were allowed to wear their blankets to exercise instead; this was soon forbidden; the IRA prisoners responded by not leaving their cells to exercise. Tensions increased considerably in Maze Prison as the IRA began to assassinate prison guards in the community.

The IRA prisoners began to receive increased beatings from the prison staff.

Answer: An extreme disregard of sanitation

During the "dirty protest" the IRA prisoners refused to wash themselves or empty their cell chamber pots. The conditions within their cells became filthy and disgusting.

Answer: Officer Commanding

Bobby Sands worked hard in the Maze prison to talk with all of the IRA prisoners and keep them all updated on IRA activity. He also spoke often with the prison officials to encourage them to treat the IRA prisoners in a more humane fashion. To pass the time in his cell, Bobby wrote on rolls of toilet paper many poems, articles, and letters.

Answer: Hunger strike

Bobby Sands began not to eat food on March 1, 1981. He arranged for other hunger strikers to begin to stop eating weeks in between each other. This would keep this extreme protest on the front cover of newspapers for a long time. Many of Bobby Sands' own people urged him not to hunger strike, including the Catholic church, but he refused to change his mind.

Answer: Anti H-Block

On April 9, 1981, during his hunger strike, Bobby Sands beat Harry West to win a seat in the British parliament.

Answer: Ten

These are the ten men who died during the 1981 hunger strike in Maze prison (INLA stands for Irish National Liberation Army).

Bobby Sands(IRA)
Francis Hughes(IRA)
Raymond McCreesh(IRA)
Patsy O'Hara(INLA)
Joe McDonnell(IRA)
Martin Hurson(IRA)
Kevin Lynch(INLA)
Kieran Doherty(IRA)
Thomas McIlwee(IRA)
Michael Devine(INLA)