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★★★★★ From RTE for ‘66 Days’
The RTE review of Brendan Byrne's film about Bobby Sands' hunger strike, 66 Days, is quite considered and sensitive and has given the documentary five stars, which is astonishing given the history of the station with regard to coverage of northern affairs. These are...
Unionists on ‘66 Days’
Two unionists, one the political commentator and broadcaster Alex Kane, the other the DUP MP Gregory Campbell, have seen the film 66 Days about Bobby Sands’ hunger strike in 1981. Here are their views on the film: Alex Kane’s from The Newsletter and Gregory Campbell’s...
‘66 Days’ – Everyone Should Watch
Denzil McDaniel has been reporting news from Fermanagh for many decades and was a witness to the 1981 hunger strike and the election of Bobby Sands in the by-election in the constituency. In this opinion piece from The Impartial Reporter he gives his views on the film...
Follow The Money!
Four days after a DUP minister reinstated a £200,000 grants scheme for marching bands – which had been suspended last year due to budget cuts (largely championed by the DUP!) – the DUP have slammed the BBC and Northern Ireland Screen for part-funding the documentary...
Commemorations, ’81
Today, in Galbally, republicans gathered for a wreath-laying ceremony at the grave of 24-year-old Martin Hurson, an IRA Volunteer who died in the 1981 hunger strike after forty-six days without food. The event followed a similar ceremony last Sunday, also on the 35th...
The BBC & The Hunger Strikes
“Denounced by right-wing press and politicians as the ‘IRA’s best friend’, the BBC had to walk a fine line between reporting events and being seen as a vehicle for IRA propaganda” writes Prof Robert Savage, a lecturer in Irish, British and European history at Boston...
‘Rethinking 1981’
Former blanket man Eoghan Mac Cormaic attended a meeting in London last week, part of a series of reflections on the 1981 hunger striker organised by the Irish Times. Here, he reports on the conference. A few months back I noticed an advertisement for a symposium...
‘That Caught The World’s Imagination’
The US edition of Variety, the weekly entertainment trade magazine, carried a review of the film 66 Days about the hunger strike of Bobby Sands. Made by Fine Point Films, 66 Days premiered at the HotDocs Festival in Toronto and was received with wide acclaim. This...
Raymond McCreesh Remembered
Last Saturday night, after Mass at the Church of St Malachy in Camlough, a commemoration in memory of IRA Volunteer Raymond McCreesh, who died on hunger strike thirty-five years ago, was attended by a large number of relatives, comrades, friends and neighbours in the...
Patsy O’Hara
Twenty-three-year-old Patsy O’Hara from Derry city, was the former leader of the Irish National Liberation Army prisoners in the H-Blocks, and joined IRA Volunteer Raymond McCreesh on hunger strike on March 22nd, three weeks after Bobby Sands and one week after...
