Robert Gerard "Bobby" Sands (Irish: Roibeárd Gearóid Ó Seachnasaigh;^[1] 9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981) was an Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and member of the British Parliament who died on hunger strike while imprisoned in HM Prison Maze.

He was the leader of the 1981 hunger strike in which Irish republican prisoners protested against the removal of Special Category Status. During his strike he was elected as a member of the British Parliament as an Anti H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner candidate.^[2][3] His death resulted in a new surge of IRA recruitment and activity. International media coverage brought attention to the hunger strikers, and the republican movement in general, attracting both praise and criticism.^[4]

Life[link]

Early years and family[link]

Sands was born into a Catholic family^[5][6] in Abbots Cross, but also lived in a house in Doonbeg Drive, Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and lived there until 1960^[7] whereupon the family were forced to move to Rathcoole, Newtownabbey.^[7] His first sister, Marcella, was born in April 1955 and second sister, Bernadette, in November 1958. His parents, John and Rosaleen, had another son, John, in 1962. On leaving school, he became an apprentice coach-builder until he was forced out at gunpoint by loyalists.^{[8][clarification needed]}

In June 1972, at the age of 18, Bobby moved with his family to the Twinbrook housing estate in west Belfast, being obliged to leave Rathcoole due to loyalist intimidation.^[9]

He married Geraldine Noade. His son, Gerard, was born 8 May 1973. She soon left to live in England with their son.^[10]

Sands' sister Bernadette Sands McKevitt is also a prominent Irish Republican. Along with her husband Michael McKevitt she helped to form the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and is accused of involvement with the Real Irish Republican Army.^[11] Sands McKevitt is opposed to the Belfast Agreement, stating that "Bobby did not die for cross-border bodies with executive powers. He did not die for nationalists to be equal British citizens within the Northern Ireland state."^[12]

Provisional IRA activity[link]

In 1972, Sands joined the Provisional IRA.^[13] He was arrested and charged in October 1972 with possession of four handguns which were found in the house where he was staying. Sands was convicted in April 1973 sentenced to five years' imprisonment and released in April 1976.^[14][15]

On his release from prison in 1976, he returned to his family home in West Belfast, and resumed his active role in the Provisional IRA's campaign. He was charged with involvement in the October 1976 bombing of the Balmoral Furniture Company in Dunmurry, although he was never convicted of this charge with the presiding judge stating that there was no evidence to support the assertion that he had taken part.^[16] After the bombing, Sands and at least five others were alleged to have been involved in a gun battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary, although he was not convicted due to lack of evidence. Leaving behind two of their wounded friends, Seamus Martin and Gabriel Corbett, Sands, Joe McDonnell, Seamus Finucane and Sean Lavery tried to make their escape in a car, but were apprehended. Later, one of the revolvers used in the attack was found in the car in which Sands had been travelling.^[17] His trial in September 1977 saw him being convicted of possession of firearms (the revolver from which the prosecution alleged bullets had been fired at the RUC after the bombing) and Sands was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment within HM Prison Maze, also known as Long Kesh.^[18]

Immediately after his sentence he was implicated in a ruckus and spent the first 22 days on boards in Crumlin Road Prison, 15 days naked, and a No. 1 starvation diet every 3 days.^[19]

Long Kesh[link]

In prison, Sands became a writer both of journalism and poetry—being published in the Irish republican newspaper An Phoblacht. In late 1980 Sands was chosen as Officer Commanding of the Provisional IRA prisoners in Long Kesh, succeeding Brendan Hughes who was participating in the first hunger strike.

Republican prisoners had organised a series of protests seeking to regain their previous Special Category Status and not be subject to ordinary prison regulations. This began with the "blanket protest" in 1976, in which the prisoners refused to wear prison uniform and wore blankets instead. In 1978, after a number of attacks on prisoners leaving their cells to "slop out" (i.e. empty their chamber pots), this escalated into the "dirty protest", wherein prisoners refused to wash and smeared the walls of their cells with excrement.^[20]

Published works[link]

While in prison Sands had several letters and articles published in the Republican paper An Phoblacht (en: Republican News) under the pseudonym "Marcella". Other writings attributed to him are: Skylark Sing Your Lonely Song ^[21] and One Day in My Life.^[22] Sands also wrote the lyrics of "Back Home in Derry" and "McIlhatton", which were both later recorded by Christy Moore; and he wrote "Sad Song For Susan" which was later recorded. The melody of "Back Home in Derry" was borrowed from Gordon Lightfoot's famous 1976 song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

Election[link]

Shortly after the beginning of the strike, Frank Maguire, the Independent Republican MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, died suddenly of a heart attack, precipitating the April 1981 by-election.

The sudden vacancy in a seat with a nationalist majority of about five thousand was a valuable opportunity for Sands' supporters to unite the nationalist community behind their campaign.^[10] Pressure not to split the vote led other nationalist parties, notably the Social Democratic and Labour Party, to withdraw, and Sands was nominated on the label "Anti H-Block / Armagh Political Prisoner". After a highly polarised campaign, Sands narrowly won the seat on 9 April 1981, with 30,493 votes to 29,046 for the Ulster Unionist Party candidate Harry West—and also becoming the youngest MP at the time.^[23]

Following Sands' success, the British Government introduced the Representation of the People Act 1981 which prevents prisoners serving jail terms of more than one year in either the UK or the Republic of Ireland from being nominated as candidates in British elections.^[24][25] This law was introduced so as to prevent the other hunger strikers from being elected to the British parliament.^[26]

Hunger strike[link]

The 1981 Irish hunger strike started with Sands refusing food on 1 March 1981. Sands decided that other prisoners should join the strike at staggered intervals in order to maximise publicity with prisoners steadily deteriorating successively over several months.

The hunger strike centred around five demands:

1. the right not to wear a prison uniform;
2. the right not to do prison work;
3. the right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits;
4. the right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week;
5. full restoration of remission lost through the protest.^[27]

The significance of the hunger strike was the prisoners' aim of being declared as political prisoners (or prisoners of war) and not to be classed as criminals. The Washington Post, however, reported that the primary aim of the hunger strike was to generate international publicity.^[28]

Death[link]

Bobby Sands' grave in Milltown Cemetery

Sands died in the prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27. The original pathologist's report recorded Sands' and the other hunger strikers' causes of death as "self-imposed starvation", later amended to simply "starvation" after protests from the dead strikers' families.^[29] The coroner recorded verdicts of "starvation, self-imposed".^[29]

The announcement of his death prompted several days of riots in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. A milkman and his son, Eric and Desmond Guiney, died as a result of injuries sustained when their milk float crashed after being stoned by rioters in a predominantly nationalist area of north Belfast.^[30][31] Over 100,000 people lined the route of Sands' funeral and he was buried in the 'New Republican Plot' alongside 76 others. Their grave is maintained and cared for by the National Graves Association, Belfast.^[32] Sands was a Member of the Westminster Parliament for 25 days, though he never took his seat or the oath.

In response to a question in the House of Commons on 5 May 1981, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said, "Mr. Sands was a convicted criminal. He chose to take his own life. It was a choice that his organisation did not allow to many of its victims".^[33] The official announcement of Sands' death in the House of Commons omitted the customary expression of sense of loss and sympathy with the family of the member.^[34]

He was survived by his parents, siblings, and a young son (Gerard) from his marriage to Geraldine Noade.

Reaction to death[link]

Europe[link]

Memorial mural along Falls Road, Belfast

In Europe, there were widespread protests after Sands' death. Five thousand Milanese students burned the Union Flag and shouted 'freedom for Ulster' during a march.^[4] The British Consulate at Ghent was raided.^[4] Thousands marched in Paris behind huge portraits of Sands, to chants of 'the IRA will conquer'.^[4] In the Portuguese Parliament, the opposition stood for Sands.^[4] In Oslo, demonstrators threw a tomato at Elizabeth II, the Queen of the United Kingdom, but missed. (The 28 year old assailant claimed however that he had not aimed for the queen, but for a smirking British soldier)^{[4] [35]} In the Soviet Union, Pravda described it as 'another tragic page in the grim chronicle of oppression, discrimination, terror and violence' in Ireland. Russian fans of Bobby Sands published a translation of the "Back Home In Derry" song ("На Родину в Дерри" in Russian).^[4] Many French towns and cities have streets named after Sands, including in Nantes, Saint-Étienne, Le Mans, Vierzon, and Saint-Denis.^[36] In the Republic of Ireland, his death led to riots and bus burning. IRA members allegedly unsuccessfully attempted to coerce proprietors of shops and other businesses into closing for a national day of mourning.^[37] The West German newspaper Die Welt took a negative view of Sands.^[4]

The Americas[link]

The US media expressed a range of opinions on Sands' death. The Boston Globe commented that "[t]he slow suicide attempt of Bobby Sands has cast his land and his cause into another downward spiral of death and despair. There are no heroes in the saga of Bobby Sands."^[38] The Chicago Tribune wrote that "Mahatma Gandhi used the hunger strike to move his countrymen to abstain from fratricide. Bobby Sands' deliberate slow suicide is intended to precipitate civil war. The former deserved veneration and influence. The latter would be viewed, in a reasonable world, not as a charismatic martyr but as a fanatical suicide, whose regrettable death provides no sufficient occasion for killing others."^[39]

The New York Times wrote that "Britain's prime minister Thatcher is right in refusing to yield political status to Bobby Sands, the Irish Republican Army hunger striker," but that by appearing "unfeeling and unresponsive" the British Government was giving Sands "the crown of martyrdom."^[40] The San Francisco Chronicle argued that political belief should not exempt activists from criminal law: "Terrorism goes far beyond the expression of political belief. And dealing with it does not allow for compromise as many countries of Western Europe and United States have learned. The bombing of bars, hotels, restaurants, robbing of banks, abductions and killings of prominent figures are all criminal acts and must be dealt with by criminal law."^[41]

Some American critics and journalists suggested that American press coverage was a "melodrama".^[42] One journalist in particular criticised the large pro-IRA Irish-American contingent which "swallow IRA propaganda as if it were taffy," and concluded that IRA "terrorist propaganda triumphs."^[43]

Archbishop John R. Roach, president of the US Catholic bishops, called Sands' death "a useless sacrifice".^[44] The Ledger of May 5, 1981 under the headline “To some he was a hero, to others a terrorist” claims that the hunger strike made Sands "a hero among Irish Republicans or Nationalists seeking the reunion of Protestant-dominated and British-ruled Northern Ireland with the predominantly Catholic Irish Republic to the south."^[45]

The Ledger cited Sands as telling his friends: “If I die, God will understand," and one of his last messages to them being, “Tell everyone I’ll see them somewhere, sometime.” ^[45]

Some political, religious, union and fund-raising institutions chose to honour Sands. The International Longshoremen's Association in New York announced a 24-hour boycott of British ships.^[37][46] Over 1,000 people gathered in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral to hear Cardinal Terence Cooke offer a Mass of reconciliation for Northern Ireland. Irish bars in the city were closed for two hours in mourning.^[4] In Hartford, Connecticut a memorial was dedicated to Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers in 1997, the only one of its kind in the United States. Set up by the Irish Northern Aid Committee and local Irish-Americans, it stands in a traffic circle known as "Bobby Sands Circle," at the bottom of Maple Avenue near Goodwin Park.^[47]

The New Jersey General Assembly, the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature, voted 34-29 for a resolution honouring his "courage and commitment."^[4]

In 2001, a memorial to Sands and the other hunger strikers was unveiled in Havana, Cuba.^[48]

Asia[link]

• In Tehran, Iran, President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr sent a message of condolence to the Sands family.^[49] The government renamed Winston Churchill Boulevard, the location of the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Tehran, to Bobby Sands Street, prompting the embassy to move its entrance door to Ferdowsi Avenue to avoid using Bobby Sands Street on its letterhead.^[50] A street in the Elahieh district is also named after Sands.^[51] An official blue and white street sign was affixed to the rear wall of the British embassy compound saying (in Persian) "Bobby Sands Street" with three words of explanation "militant Irish guerrilla".^[49][52] The official Pars news agency called Bobby Sands' death "heroic".^[49] There have subsequently been claims that the British foreign secretary has pressured Iranian authorities to change the name of Bobby Sands Street but this is denied.^[53][54][55]
• The Hindustan Times said Margaret Thatcher had allowed a fellow Member of Parliament to die of starvation, an incident which had never before occurred "in a civilised country."^[4]
• In the Indian Parliament, opposition members in the upper house Rajya Sabha stood for a minute's silence in tribute. The ruling Congress Party refused to join in.^[4]
• The Hong Kong Standard said it was 'sad that successive British governments have failed to end the last of Europe's religious wars.'^[4]
• A large monument dedicated to Irish protagonists for independence from Britain, including Bobby Sands, stands in the Waverley Cemetery in Sydney, Australia.

United Kingdom[link]

At Old Firm football matches in Glasgow, Scotland, some Rangers fans have been known to sing songs mocking Bobby Sands to taunt fans of Celtic. Rangers fans are mainly Protestant, and predominantly sympathetic to the Unionist and Loyalist community; Celtic fans are traditionally more likely to support the Nationalist and Republican community.^[56] Celtic fans regularly sing the republican song "The Roll of Honour" which commemorates the ten men who died in the 1981 hunger strike, amongst other songs in support of the IRA. Sands is honoured in the line "They stood beside their leader - the gallant Bobby Sands." Rangers' taunts have since been adopted by the travelling support of other UK clubs, particularly those with strong British ties, as a form of anti-Irish sentiment.^[57] The 1981 British Home Championship football tournament was cancelled following the refusal of teams from England and Wales to travel to Northern Ireland in the aftermath of his death due to security concerns.

Cardinal Basil Hume, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, condemned Sands, describing the hunger strike as a form of violence. However he noted that this was his personal view. The Roman Catholic Church's official stance was that ministrations should be provided to the hunger strikers who, believing their sacrifice to be for a higher good, were acting in good conscience.^[45]

Political impact[link]

Nine other IRA and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) members who were involved in the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike also died after Sands. On the day of Sands' funeral, Unionist leader Ian Paisley held a memorial service outside of Belfast city hall to commemorate the victims of the IRA.^[37] In the Irish general elections held the same year, two anti H-block candidates won seats on an abstentionist basis.

The media coverage that surrounded the death of Sands resulted in a new surge of IRA activity and an immediate escalation in the Troubles, with the group obtaining many more members and increasing its fund-raising capability. Both nationalists and unionists began to harden their attitudes and move towards political extremes.^[58] Sands' Westminster seat was taken by his election agent, Owen Carron standing as 'Anti H-Block Proxy Political Prisoner' with an increased majority.^[59]

Music and film[link]

The Grateful Dead played the Nassau Coliseum the following night after Sands died and guitarist Bob Weir dedicated the song "He's Gone" to Sands.^[60] The concert was later released as Dick's Picks Volume 13, part of the Grateful Dead's programme of live concert releases.

The music video for the The Cranberries song Zombie shows a clip of a mural commemorating Sands.

Songs written in response to the hunger strikes and Sands' death include songs by Black 47, Nicky Wire, The Undertones,^[61] Bik McFarlane and Eric Bogle. Christy Moore's song, "The People's Own MP", has been described as an example of a rebel song of the "hero-martyr" genre in which Sands' "intellectual, artistic and moral qualities" are eulogised.^[62] American rock band Rage Against the Machine have listed Sands as an inspiration in the sleeve notes of their self titled debut album.^[63] and as a "political hero" in media interviews ^[64]

Bobby Sands has also been portrayed in the following films:

• Bobby Sands was played by John Lynch in the 1996 film Some Mother's Son. It was directed by Terry George and written by George and Jim Sheridan.^[65]
• Bobby Sands was played by Mark O'Halloran in the 2001 film H3.^[66]
• Il Silenzio dell'Allodola (2005, aka The Silence of the Skylark) by Italian film director and scriptwriter David Ballerini features Ivan Franek as Bobby Sands. It won awards and was premiered in Ireland at the Cork Film Festival, screened at Rotterdam Int. Film Festival and several other festivals.^[67]
• Michael Fassbender played Bobby Sands in Hunger, a 2008 film by artist Steve McQueen about the last six weeks of Bobby Sands' life in the context of the 1981 Irish hunger strike. It premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival^[68] and won McQueen the prestigious Caméra d'Or award for first-time filmmakers.^[69] It was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK for the first time on 15 December 2009.^[70]

See also[link]

	Ireland portal
	United Kingdom portal
	Biography portal

• List of United Kingdom MPs with the shortest service
• Terence MacSwiney - Lord Mayor of Cork in 1920 who died in Brixton Prison after a hunger strike lasting 74 days.
• Khader Adnan

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bobby Sands

• Bobby Sands Trust – Official website of poetry and writings by Bobby Sands MP
• Biography from Irish Republican website
• Bobby Sands diary entries & biographies of the ten hunger strikers
• Timewatch: Hunger Strike – a Hidden History (Otmoor Productions/BBC 1993.)
• The Diary of Bobby Sands secret diary written during the first seventeen days of his hungerstrike, before being moved to the prison hospital.

Michael Fassbender
Fassbender in March 2012.
Born	(1977-04-02) 2 April 1977 (age 35) Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany
Nationality	Irish, German
Alma mater	Drama Centre London
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1994–present

Michael Fassbender (born 2 April 1977) is an Irish-German actor. He is perhaps best known for having played Lieutenant Archie Hicox in the war film Inglourious Basterds (2009), Magneto in the superhero film X-Men: First Class (2011), and the android David in the science fiction film Prometheus.

His other credits include the fantasy action film 300 (2007); the drama film Fish Tank (2009); the romantic drama film Jane Eyre (2011); the historical film A Dangerous Method (2011), directed by David Cronenberg, in which he plays psychologist Carl Jung; as well as the biographical film Hunger (2008) and the drama film Shame (2011), both directed by Steve McQueen. For his role in Shame, he won the Volpi Cup best-actor award at the 68th Venice International Film Festival held in August 2011 along with being nominated for a Golden Globe Award and BAFTA.

Early life and education[link]

Fassbender was born in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany (now Germany). His mother is from Larne, County Antrim in Northern Ireland, and his father, Josef Fassbender, is German.^[1][2] According to Fassbender's "family lore", his mother is the great-great-niece of Michael Collins, an Irish leader during the War of Independence.^[1][3] When he was two years old, his parents moved to Killarney, County Kerry, in the Republic of Ireland, where they ran the West End House, a restaurant where his father worked as a chef.^[1][2] Fassbender was brought up as a Roman Catholic and served as an altar boy.^[4]

He attended St. Brendan's, Killarney (The Sem) and the Drama Centre London.^[5]

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Fassbender first played the part of Burton "Pat" Christenson in Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's award-winning television miniseries Band of Brothers. He played the character of Azazeal in both series of Hex on Sky One and he also starred as the main character in the music video for the song "Blind Pilots", by the British band The Cooper Temple Clause. In the video, he plays the part of a man on a stag night with his friends, only to slowly transform into a goat due to wearing a cowbell necklace.

Fassbender played the part of Jonathan Harker in a ten-part radio serialization of Dracula produced by BBC Northern Ireland and broadcast in the Book at Bedtime series between 24 November and 5 December 2003. He was also seen in early 2004 in a Guinness television commercial, The Quarrel, playing a man who swims across the ocean from Ireland to apologize personally to his brother in New York.

During the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Fassbender played Michael Collins in Allegiance, a play by Mary Kenny based on the meeting between Winston Churchill and Collins, of whom Fassbender's mother is a great-niece.^[6] In addition, he produced, directed and starred in the stage version of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, along with his production company.

He appeared in Angel (UK title: The Real Life of Angel Deverell), about the rise and fall of an eccentric young British writer (played by Romola Garai) in the early 20th century. Fassbender plays her love interest and average painter Esmé. The drama – the first English-language effort by French director François Ozon and based on the novel by Elizabeth Taylor – premiered on 17 February 2007 at the Berlin International Film Festival and on 14 March 2007 in Paris. He then made a brief appearance in Wedding Belles as Barney, speaking with a Scottish accent.

Mainstream success[link]

Michael Fassbender at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival

In 2006, Fassbender played the role of Stelios, a young Spartan warrior, in 300, a fantasy action film directed by Zack Snyder. The film was a commercial success.^[7]

In preparation for his role as Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoner Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen's 2008 film Hunger, Fassbender underwent a crash diet that restricted him to 600 calories a day. He received the British Independent Film Award for his performance.^[8]

One year after his success at the Cannes Film Festival with Hunger, he appeared in two films. The first was Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, in which he played the British officer Lieutenant Archie Hicox. The other film was Fish Tank directed by Andrea Arnold. Both films were critically acclaimed and Fassbender's work in them also well received.

In 2010, Fassbender appeared as Burke in Jonah Hex, a Western film.^[9] In an interview at San Diego Comic-Con International, a comic book convention, Fassbender commented of the role: "I kind of developed this character and really pushed it – I’ll see how far I pushed it ... I had this idea about the character, he’s kind of psychotic, he gets his kicks in perverted ways. I didn’t want to make it very obvious or like something you’ve seen before".^[10] Hex received predominately negative reviews.^[11] Responding to criticism of Jonah Hex in 2011, Fassbender commented: "Pretty awful, was it? I haven't seen it myself."^[12]

He also portrayed Quintus Dias in Neil Marshall's war-thriller-drama film Centurion.^[13] and was cast as 'Richard Wirth' in the Joel Schumacher film Blood Creek alongside Dominic Purcell. The story centers on a West Virginia man who comes to terms with his moral qualms and helps his brother wipe out a family that had been protecting a Nazi occultist and who had kept his brother captive for him to feed off for years.

Fassbender played Edward Rochester in the 2011 film Jane Eyre, featuring Mia Wasikowska in the title role, with Cary Fukunaga directing.^[14]

Fassbender (right), Josh Brolin and Megan Fox promoting the 2010 film Jonah Hex at Comic-Con in 2009.

Fassbender portrayed Magneto in the superhero blockbuster X-Men: First Class, the prequel to X-Men. Set in 1962, it focuses on the friendship between Charles Xavier (played by James McAvoy) and Magneto and the origin of their groups, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants. The film was released on 3 June 2011 to general acclaim and financial success and promoted Fassbender to being more of a popular movie star.

In 2011, Fassbender starred in A Dangerous Method by director David Cronenberg, playing Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist Carl Jung. The film premiered at the 2011 Venice Film Festival.^[15] He also starred in Shame, as a man in his thirties struggling with his sex addiction. Shame reunited him with director Steve McQueen and premiered at the 2011 Venice Film Festival, where Fassbender won a Volpi Cup best actor award for his portrayal of Brandon.^[16] Fassbender was a serious contender for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, but he was not nominated, and according to various sources his full-frontal nudity and depiction of sexual encounters inspired voters "to fantasize, and not actually vote."^[17][18] Fassbender achieved critical acclaim for his performance in Shame and received nominations for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

In 2012, he appeared in Haywire, an action-thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh.^[19]

Future projects[link]

Due to a schedule conflict, Fassbender had to pull out of negotiations to work with Oscar-winning director, Danny Boyle, in his new film, Trance.^[20]

Fassbender signed to star in actor Brendan Gleeson's directorial debut of At Swim-Two-Birds,^[21] a film adaptation of Irish author Flann O'Brien's novel. He will also team up for a third time with McQueen to co-star in a yet-to-be-determined role, with Chiwetel Ejiofor, portraying Solomon Northup, in Twelve Years A Slave, filming to commence in late summer of 2012.

Together with a screenwriter Ronan Bennett, Fassbender formed a production company Finn McCool Films. Fassbender and Bennett are currently developing a film about the Irish mythological hero Cú Chulainn.^[22]

In February, Fassbender signed on to play a title role as a lawyer in The Counselor, a film directed by Ridley Scott and based on the Cormac McCarthy script, filming is to start in mid-June.^[23]

He is also going to play Thomas Wolfe in a movie Genius about a famous literary editor Max Perkins, to be played by Colin Firth.^[24]

In 2013, Fassbender is set to take on the role of Harry Flashman in a film adaptation of the books by George MacDonald Fraser.

Personal life[link]

Shifting between British films and American films, Fassbender resides in London, England where he has lived for the last 15 years, while making career-related visits to Los Angeles, California.

He speaks conversational German, though he has stated that he needed to brush up a bit on his spoken German before filming Inglourious Basterds, as it was a bit rusty.^[25][26] He has also expressed interest in performing in a German-language film or theater production one day.^[27]

Fassbender is currently dating his Shame costar Nicole Beharie. ^[28]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Fassbender was at the Top Gear studios in Surrey, England, on 8 February 2012 to film Star in a Reasonably Priced Car, where celebs try to set a fastest lap time of the Top Gear test track in a low-spec family hatchback. The lap and his interview with Jeremy Clarkson was aired on BBC2 on 19 February 2012.

See also[link]

• List of awards and nominations received by Michael Fassbender

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michael Fassbender

• Michael Fassbender at the Internet Movie Database

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2009)

Thomas (Tom) Barry (Irish: Tomás de Barra) (1 July 1897 – 2 July 1980) was one of the most prominent guerrilla leaders in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence.

Early life[link]

Barry was born in Killorglin, County Kerry. He was the son of a Royal Irish Constabulary policeman. Four years later, Thomas Barry Senior resigned and opened a business in his hometown of Rosscarbery, County Cork.^[1] Barry was educated for a period at Mungret College, County Limerick from 25 August 1911 to 12 September 1912. The reason for his short stay is indicated by a reference from the school register of the Apostolic School, Mungret College; 'Went - Home (ran away) without knowledge of superiors - no vocation'.^[2]

In 1915, during World War I, he enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery at Cork and became a soldier in the British Army.

He fought in Mesopotamia (then part of the Ottoman Empire, present day Iraq). He rose to the rank of sergeant.^[4] Barry was offered a commission in the Royal Munster Fusiliers but refused it.^{[citation needed]} While outside Kut-el-Amara Barry first heard of the Easter Rising.

War of Independence[link]

On his return to Cork he was involved with ex-servicemen's organisations. In 1920, Barry joined the 3rd (West) Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) which was then engaged in the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921). He was involved in brigade council meetings, was brigade-training officer, flying column commander, was consulted by IRA General Headquarters Staff (GHQ), and also participated in the formation of the IRA First Southern Division. The West Cork Brigade became famous for its discipline, efficiency and bravery, and Barry garnered a reputation as the most brilliant field commander of the war.

On 28 November 1920, Barry's unit ambushed and killed almost a whole platoon of British Auxiliaries at Kilmichael, County Cork. In March 1921 at Crossbarry in the same county, Barry and 104 men, divided into seven sections, broke out of an encirclement of 1,200 strong British force from the Essex Regiment. In total, the British Army stationed over 12,500 troops in County Cork during the conflict, while Barry's men numbered no more than 310. Eventually, Barry's tactics made West Cork ungovernable for the British authorities.

"They said I was ruthless, daring, savage, blood thirsty, even heartless. The clergy called me and my comrades murderers; but the British were met with their own weapons. They had gone in the mire to destroy us and our nation and down after them we had to go."^[5]

Civil War[link]

During the negotiations that preceded the Truce that ended the war, the British had demanded that Barry be handed over to them before progress could be made on other matters. Michael Collins refused, although he afterwards jokingly told his fellow Cork men that he had been sorely tempted. Barry opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 6 December 1921, because, according to him, it betrayed the Irish Republic and partitioned Ireland. He fought on the Republican side in the Irish Civil War (1922–1923) and was imprisoned by the Irish Free State after the Battle of Dublin in July 1922. Barry had voiced the opinion that, at the start of the Civil War, while the Republican side was stronger, they should have taken over Dublin and the major cities and forced a new confrontation with the British.

In September of that year, however, he escaped from an internment camp at Gormanston in north County Dublin and travelled south, to take command of the anti-Treaty IRA Second Southern Division. In November 1922, he led his men in the capture of a string of towns across the south midlands, including Carrick on Suir, Thomastown and Mullinavat, taking the Free State garrison there prisoner. However, due to a shortage of men and equipment, he was unable to hold these places, evacuating them before National Army reinforcements arrived. After this point, Barry increasingly argued with Liam Lynch, the Republican commander in chief, that the Civil War should be brought to an end, as there was no hope of victory. In March, Barry proposed to the IRA Army executive that a ceasefire should be called, but he was defeated by 6 votes to 5. The anti-treaty campaign was belatedly called off by Frank Aiken in May, after Lynch had been killed in a skirmish with Free State troops. Barry was arrested shortly before Aiken's order to "dump arms", on 24 May 1923.

Subsequent IRA career[link]

After the defeat of the Anti-Treaty IRA in the Civil War, Barry was released in 1924. He served as general superintendent of Cork Harbour Commission from 1927 to 1965. In March 1936 Barry was involved in the shooting dead of Vice-Admiral Henry Somerville. Four men burst into Somerville's family home at Castletownshend, Cork and fired a revolver.^{[6] [7]} Somerville was targeted for recruiting local men to join the Royal Navy.

In 1937, he succeeded Seán MacBride as chief of staff. Barry claimed that they had sabotaged a planned IRA offensive in Northern Ireland. Barry would assert in later life that he opposed both the 1930s bombing campaign in England and IRA contacts with Nazi Germany. In fact in January 1937 he had taken a trip to Germany seeking German support, which was assured to him subject to the condition that the IRA limit its actions to British military installations once war was declared. Financing was to be arranged through the Clann na Gael in the USA. The Army Convention in April 1938 adopted Seán Russells S-Plan instead. Barry resigned as chief of staff as a result, but remained in contact with German agents at least to February 1939.^[8]

In 1940, Barry was made responsible for Intelligence in the Irish Army's Southern Command, a position he held for the duration of World War II (see The Emergency). In 1941 he was denounced by the IRA for writing for the Irish Army's journal. He was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1946 Cork Borough by-election. Barry was supportive of the Provisional IRA campaign but expressed reservations about some of their tactics.

Memoir[link]

In 1949, Barry published his memoirs of the Irish War of Independence, Guerilla Days in Ireland. It describes his Brigade's exploits such as the ambushes at Kilmichael and Crossbarry, as well as numerous other less known actions which were directed against the British Army, Black and Tans, the Auxiliary Division and the Royal Irish Constabulary. It became a classic account of the war and an influential guide on guerrilla warfare. Barry took part in a fiftieth anniversary commemoration of Kilmcihael on 9 August 1970, which was reported by Mary Leland in the Irish Times: "THE BOYS of Kilmichael were honoured in Co. Cork, yesterday, 50 years after the famous ambush in which the West Cork Flying Column wiped out a force of Black-and-Tans. General Tom Barry was the man who planned and led the ambush and yesterday he used the occasion to enunciate what he described as “certain principles of Republicanism.” To an audience of perhaps 1,000 people which included former members of the column who had taken part in the ambush as well as Messrs. Neil Blaney T.D., Kevin Boland, T.D., and Flor Crowley, T.D., he said that the first object of Republicanism was still the attainment of a Republic of the 32 Counties “despite any other implication or manoeuvring.” “There is now a heresy being propounded,” he said, “that the question of the unity of this country is a matter for the people of the Six Counties. This can never be accepted because the unity of this country is a matter for every man, woman and child within it.” That was the second principle. The third was that nobody had the right to abjure the right of Irishmen to drive from this country the armed occupying forces. “There has never been so much love-talk with British Imperialism as of late,” General Barry said. “Never so much sloppy talk and sloppy actions – particularly to the effect that Ireland can only be reunited by peaceful means. Do peaceful means obtain in the Six Counties?” General Barry drew the parallels of history: his theory of interior disunity being the fatal flaw in Irish defensive warfare was expressed again – that, and British imperialistic machinations. “These are facts of our own lifetime,” he said. “Are we going to go on in this disunity? Are we going to continue to see our Six Counties under the repression, the terror of Imperialism? Are we going to go on allowing this, or are we going to do our thinking for ourselves?” These words, and his gritty references to the men who died in their youth with guns in their hands, were greeted with cheers and applause. [. . .]

He described the plan of the engagement, how it happened, the long wait through the wet day among the rocks and heather. Then all over in 20 minutes. He took full responsibility for the fact that when the Auxiliaries called a second surrender (they had violated the first by opening fire again and killing two of his men) he refused to grant it.

“Keep firing,” I told them. “Keep firing until they stop.” Again the crowd cheered.

Eighteen members of the column were present, old men from . . . west Cork. Some had come from America; a wreath was laid on behalf of the old I.R.A. members in Boston, with the message: “We helped in the past and we will endeavour to help in the future”."

Death[link]

He died in a Cork hospital in 1980 and was survived by his wife, Leslie de Barra (née Price), whom he married in 1921 and who was the director of organization for Cumann na mBan and later President of the Irish Red Cross. She died in 1984.

Tom Barry in popular culture[link]

• Bobby Sands wrote a poem about Barry after his death, entitled Tom Barry. It was published posthumously in the collection Prison Poems.[1]
• In Ken Loach's film The Wind That Shakes the Barley the character of Teddy is partly based on him, although Teddy fights on the other side in the Civil War.
• A stage adaptation of Tom Barry's war memoir Guerilla Days in Ireland was performed in the 'Theatre By The Lake', Gougane Barra, in West Cork in August 2011. It was written and directed by Neil Pearson, and starred Brendan Conroy as Barry.

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See also[link]

• Kilmichael Ambush
• Crossbarry Ambush
• Irish Republican Army
• Irish War of Independence
• Tomás Ó Canainn^[why?]

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Brian Hanley, The IRA. 1926–1936, Dublin (Four Courts Press), 2002. ISBN 1-85182-721-8
• West Cork Flying Column 1919–1921
• 'War of Words' over battle
• The Kilmichael ambush controversy
• 62 minute talk to the 1916–1921 Club by Meda Ryan, author of 'Tom Barry: IRA Freedom Fighter'
• Detailed account of the controversial Kilmichael Ambush