Bobby Sands won more votes than Thatcher

In his letter (Aug 26) Desmond FitzGerald completely ignores the causes of the Northern conflict and states that “the only people who think that the Maze prisoners acted with the support of the community are themselves and their apologists”.

Perhaps he can explain why the hunger striker Bobby Sands was elected an MP with more votes than Margaret Thatcher, or how Sands’ colleague Kieran Doherty was later elected a TD? Does he ever wonder why countless thousands attended the hunger strikers’ funerals? Millions throughout the world admired the courage of the hunger strikers and deplored Britain’s inflexible stance on the matter. Britain was censured by the European Court of Human Rights and even by Anglophile publications like the New York Times.

Before Desmond FitzGerald starts talking about preserving “the cell of a murderer in a conventional prison” perhaps he should consider the words of the late John M Feehan on the death of Bobby Sands: “Is there any single case in the entire history of the world where the death of a ‘criminal’ was accorded such international recognition and sympathy?”