Bobby Sands: Writings from Prison
It is 15 years since Sands, the 27-year-old leader of IRA prisoners in Belfast's Long Kesh Prison who was elected to the British Parliament while behind bars, became the first of 10 prisoners to die of self-imposed hunger, protesting the Thatcher government's treatment of IRA inmates as criminal, not political, prisoners. Fleeting hopes for peace in the mid-'90s and recent books (e.g.,Before the Dawnby Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein, who contributes a foreword here) and films (particularlySome Mother's Son, which portrays the mothers' campaign to save the hunger strikers) increase the appeal of Sands' prison writings. Of this book, the longest section, "One Day in My Life," details the prisoners' treatment; the other, "Skylark Sing Your Lonely Song," includes poetry, essays, and the diary Sands kept for the first 17 days of the fast (he died on day 66). Though Sands won't replace Yeats or Shaw in the Irish canon, his reflections have moments of eloquence that will appeal to readers concerned about Northern Ireland's "troubles."Mary Carroll