Saturday, May 5, 2018

DEATH OF BOBBY SANDS IN 1981

MARKING THE FENIAN GRAVES

I have written a  couple of times about the  advantage that Pawtucket  holds over so many other  American cities-PAWTUCKET HOLDS A FENIAN GRAVE,
Today in Philadelphia two Irish Patriots are being remembered and their graves are being marked with new gravestones that tell the story of their  patriotic  devotion to Ireland and the cause of Irish Freedom.
And it is a fitting day because today is the anniversary of the death OF BOBBY SANDS who died after  66 days on Hunger Strike in protest  in  the prison of Long Kesh in  Northern Ireland.

This history of struggle  all adds to the tradition of Irish Patriots and also to the  memory of BOBBY SANDS on this the anniversary of his death.  The example that those men set by going to their deaths in Long Kesh changed my whole sense  of the value of sacrifice. George Mc Laughlin, who has  held fundraisers in Pawtucket  at The Galway Bay  near McCoy Stadium,  has  tracked down all of the burial  sites of all the Fenians who were rescued from their  life sentences in prison in Australia. 
His  mission to  mark their sacred  graves is  another moving example of  never forgetting Erin.
  My mother  often sang that song about that feeling:
When you sigh, we hear you
when you weep, we weep
In your hours of gladness 
how our pulses leap.
Ireland, Mother Ireland.

Because of George's initiative,  beautiful gravestones are being placed today on the graves of Cranston and Darragh--so this is  a good day in the Irish Diaspora. And we know that Pawtucket is a major  player in the  life and  history of the IRISH DIASPORA. 

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