Telling both sides of Bobby Sands' story

Brendan J Byrne tried to ensure his documentary on Bobby Sands gave a balanced view of the IRA man who died on hunger strike, he tells Esther McCarthy

FEW people are better placed to tell the story of Bobby Sands than filmmaker Brendan J Byrne. A Belfast man through and through, he was a teenager in the summer of 1981, when word first came through that Sands had died after more than two months of hunger striking in a bid for better prison status and conditions.

Many more were to die before the strike was called off in what was a grim period in Ireland’s history. Byrne’s new documentary, Bobby Sands: 66 Days, arrives in cinemas on August 5 on the back of much praise on the film festival circuit.