Bobby Sands historic election victory recalled in Jim Jaz McCann s prison memoir Bobby Sands was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone 40 years ago. Picture by Alan Lewis/Photopress 09 April, 2021 01:00
Jim Jaz McCann recalls Bobby Sands election victory as one of the best most unforgettable moments of his life. Picture by Hugh Russell
BOBBY Sands victory in Fermanagh and South Tyrone 40 years ago today gave the republican movement a victory that not even countless IRA military operations could have achieved , according to a former prisoner in the H-Blocks who recalls the historic election victory in his recently-published memoir.
Jim Jaz McCann s 6000 Days is the ex-prisoner s account of his time on remand in Crumlin Road gaol and serving a 25 year sentence for attempted murder, beginning in 1976.
Mark Devenport: Why I decided it was time to quit the BBC belfasttelegraph.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from belfasttelegraph.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
His sudden departure as BBC NI Political Editor shocked viewers, but Mark Devenport had been mulling the decision over for some time, with the long shadow cast by a harrowing family tragedy proving an influencing factor.
In 2001, when he d taken up the coveted post, he was celebrating becoming a father for the first time yet also had to watch his beloved brother Peter die from a brain tumour. The 20-year anniversary of that tumultuous year was fast approaching. Landmark birthdays for the journalist and for Northern Ireland were also visible on the horizon. The year 2001, for good and bad reasons, had been quite a significant year and I had it in my mind s eye that 2021 might be another significant year for me, says Devenport, who grew up in Oxford but considers himself an honorary Northern Irishman.