'An excellent book. ... [Bobby is] alive and vibrant on every page. Most importantly, the book traces the development of an ordinary boy from a working class background to the highly politicised, articulate revolutionary that he became in later years.' Dr Laurence McKeown, author, playwright and former IRA prisoner who joined the hunger strike led by Bobby Sands 'An excellent book. It tells not just the story of Bobby, the prison protest and hunger strikes but accurately captures the atmosphere of the prison....Bobby is alive and vibrant on every page." 'The life of a truly remarkable young man ... how he grew from a plucky lad into a deeply committed, sensitive, anti-imperialist revolutionary. [This book] has a message that will find interest everywhere.' Mumia Abu-Jamal 'Denis O'Hearn in his gripping, heart stopping, exhilarating sometimes sad book, Bobby Sands, tells an extraordinary story of life, love and noble death. ... A grand and inspiring book by a grand and inspiring writer.' Malachy McCourt 'Bobby Sands, as this magnificent biography reminds us, was a hero for the whole world and yet broad Belfast to the core. We cried when he died, but he laughed in the face of tyranny and taught us the deepest meaning of comradeship.' Mike Davis At seventeen, Bobby Sands was interested in music, girls and soccer. Ten years later, he led his fellow prisoners on a protest that grabbed the world's attention. Bobby Sands turned twenty-seven on hunger strike, after spending almost nine years in prison because of his activities as a member of the Irish Republican Army. When he died on May 5, 1981, on the sixty-sixth day of his hunger strike against repressive conditions in Northern Ireland's H-Block prisons, parliaments across the world stopped for a minute's silence in his honour. Nelson Mandela followed his example and led a similar hunger strike in South Africa. Bobby Sands' remarkable life and death have made him the Irish Che Guevara. He is an enduring figure of resistance whose life has inspired millions around the world. But until the publication of this book, nothing has adequately explored the motivation of the hunger strikers, nor recreated this period of history from within the prison cell. Denis O'Hearn's powerful biography, which contains an enormous amount of new material based on primary research and interviews, illuminates for the first time this enigmatic, controversial and heroic figure.

Table of Contents:
Prelude ix Chapter 1. Growing Up in Utopia 1 Chapter 2. Violence and Anger 9 Chapter 3. Into the IRA 17 Chapter 4. A Change of Scene 25 Chapter 5. A Trip to the South 39 Chapter 6. Prison 45 Chapter 7. Things Get Hot 59 Chapter 8. Learning to Rebel 69 Chapter 9. Leaving Long Kesh 89 Chapter 10. Putting It into Practice 97 Chapter 11. A Bad Day in Dunmurry 113 Chapter 12. Castlereagh 127 Chapter 13. Back to Prison 143 Chapter 14. Solitary Confinement 157 Chapter 15. On the Blanket 165 Chapter 16. Escalating the Protest 179 Chapter 17. H6: Building Solidarity Within 211 Chapter 18. H6: Extending the Protest 227 Chapter 19. Toward the Inevitable 247 Chapter 20. Hunger Strike 275 Chapter 21. Step by Step 303 Chapter 22. The End 333 Chapter 23. The Beginning 371 Notes 387 Acknowledgements 421 Index 425