The death of Bobby Sands and the other Irish hunger strikers still resonates to this day

“I am standing on the threshold of another trembling world. May God have mercy on my soul.” With these words, written 42 years ago, Bobby Sands began the hunger strike on March 1 1981 that would culminate in his death after 66 days on May 5.

Following in his wake were the deaths of nine others who made the same sacrifice: Francis Hughes, Patsy O’Hara, Raymond McCreesh, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee and Michael Devine.

Just over four decades on it is perhaps difficult to appreciate the significance of the sacrifice made by Sands and his comrades, which remains a monumental testament to the power of the human spirit when engaged in the struggle for a just cause.

By the time of Sands’ death in 1981 the Troubles in the Six Counties in the North of Ireland had been raging since the late 1960s, when the Provisional IRA emerged from the failure of successive British governments to reform the sectarian and gerrymandered province, in which the minority Catholic/Nationalist population were regarded as second class citizens, denied the same political and civil rights as their Protestant/Unionist counterparts, and were subjected to loyalist pogroms.